Ammonia Issues- WTF!?

[mshill90]

I've been having a terrible time with ammonia in my tanks.. I have NEVER had this issue before.. The tanks get w/c every other day of 30-40%- ammo lock is added- I have city water, but there is no ammonia present in it, as it's tested before w/c.

The tanks with issues are as follows:

30 gallon: 3 2" Juranese, 1 .5" cory, 2 2" pbass. Using AC110 as filter. Been running for months- 50% water change last night, came down this afternoon, and ammonia is as high as possible. The filter is clean, and there is no un eated food in tank. They get fed every 2-3 days.

90 gallon: Fahaka Puffer 12"- 2 Ac110's- get fed once every 4 days- sand is scooped every other day. Water change of 40% last night. ammonia not as bad, but still present.. has been running with fish for over a year.

125 gallon: Been running for over a year- the inhabitants were: 7 bichirs 12"-5"; 1 jag, 1 midas, 2 common plecos, and 18" RTxTSN.. Filters were 4 ac110's, eheim pro 2, JAD LARGE sponge filter.. this tank has been cycled and running with no issues ever... as soon as I removed the catfish, and the plecos the ammonia went so high that my cichlids got ammonia burn! They got moved to a 180 now with a red terror, and the catfish, and plecos are rehomed.

These have all happened literally over night... The 125 happened about 2 weeks ago- I drained it 90%, and filled it with cycled water from my koi tank, and I just did another water change today...

Note: the only thing that I have changed in my daily routine is adding Seachem Stability... I've heard it's good to you..

Help? Ideas?

 

[brich999]

something may have killed BB maybe too much seachem? sounds like they are cycling again. id go to prime which isnt a new product

 

[mshill90]

something may have killed BB maybe too much seachem? sounds like they are cycling again. id go to prime which isnt a new product

I did just as the directions said for the already cycled tanks.. hm..

Isn't prime just a water conditioner?

 

[haywood]

I'd ditch the ammo-lock as all it does is make ammonia less potent. With the crazy filtration you have, you shouldn't be having problems like this. The only thing I can think of is maybe you are changing TOO much water? Did you do water changes like this all along, while the tanks were initially cycling? If so, the tanks may have never fully cycled. I would do a water change in each tank, and add Seachem Stability. Let the tanks run a week or two with no water changes, dosing with Stability every day. Test your params. The stability will allow the fish to live a healthy life while the tank re-cycles.

 

[mshill90]

I'd ditch the ammo-lock as all it does is make ammonia less potent. With the crazy filtration you have, you shouldn't be having problems like this. The only thing I can think of is maybe you are changing TOO much water? Did you do water changes like this all along, while the tanks were initially cycling? If so, the tanks may have never fully cycled. I would do a water change in each tank, and add Seachem Stability. Let the tanks run a week or two with no water changes, dosing with Stability every day. Test your params. The stability will allow the fish to live a healthy life while the tank re-cycles.

My fish got ammo burn while I was using stability... that's the only thing I have changed... They have all been cycled running perfect params from the start until I added the stability.

I have always used ammo lock to condition my water. Never any issues with it.

And I've checked with my water company, and they have not made any changes to chlorine levels etc.

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

I wont add stability into a tank that has already been cycled. Just don't see the point

 

[aclockworkorange]

I wont add stability into a tank that has already been cycled. Just don't see the point

Only time I would consider it is if you're adding a considerable amount of new fish. Otherwise, even seachem says you shouldnt use it all the time, and that's saying something consider they make more money if you use/buy more.

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

For an ammonia spike [not caused by adding of new fishes/complete annihilation of your BB in media] in a cycled tank. You should be adding Prime instead. Sure the ammonia could be temporarily bring back to 0 by adding more bacteria. But once everything returns to normal, the amount of ammonia normally produced isn't sufficient to feed the existing BB in your tank, resulting in a die-off of bacteria.

 

[aclockworkorange]

I go the prime and water change route, personally. My ph is actually pretty acidic in most my tanks so ammonia is converted to ammonium anyway. Gotta watch the nitrite spike though--IME much more dangerous than ammonia (depending on the ph, of course).
I also don't know exactly how stability works. I know it's "beneficial bacteria in a bottle" but I don't know exactly how it affects established tanks. All I know is it reliably has cycled every new tank I've tried it with safely.

 

[Piscine]

Has your ph dipped below 6.0? Is there plenty of dissolved oxygen? From what I understand, Nitrosomonas will cease to function at a ph below 6.0, so that could be an issue.

http://www.bioconlabs.com/nitribactfacts.html

The only other thing I can think of (other than something toxic in your tap water), is a lengthy power outage that happened when no one was around causing your tank to re-cycle.