Ammonia only crash.

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I know your gph is high, but is it circulating well across all rough/pourous surfaces that house bb? If you can find a way to re-direct water to increase flow across bio media it could help get the ammonia to the consuming bacteria more quickly. That may help keep ammonia levels lower until you get a more permanent solution
 
It's all good guys, shiz happens, but for real op if ur water is 2ppm ammonia call ur city, they will get a huge fine, not to mention over time its toxic to u. Id be more concerned with that....I just think ur tap is the whole prob that's why I was so focused on it. I saw those 2posts but their not mfkers just randoms with god knows what kind of test kit. Bw or tannin water can make ur color results vary BTW.



Go S. Vettel #1 rb8
 
My ph in my tanks is 7.8.

1ppm not 2ppm and I doubt they would do anything as its not regulated according to the city water report, they detect ranges from 0.07ppm all the way to 0.72ppm So thinking about that it makes since that it could be 1ppm if the 0.72ppm is inconsideration before they add chloramine the additional ammonia from chloramine would be enough to push it to the 1ppm. Also our water service is already in plenty of trouble with the EPA gosh bless them and they are so kind as to pass that trouble on to us in the form of 100% rate increase over 5 years.

http://www.kcmo.org/idc/groups/water/documents/waterservices/wqr2011.pdf "Nice water quality report"


My favorite is this, I am pretty sure I wouldn't want to drink any of this even if it was in ppt, looking ate the report I am amazed what is okay to have in H20 and still call it H20.

PARAMETER DATE TESTED VIOLATION UNITS MCL MCLG KCMO AVG KCMO RANGE
Cyanide 2011 NO ppb 200 200 8 ND - 53

My over head filter does a decent job of getting the bio media evenly covered but could possibly do a bit better I will look into how I can spread it more mabye drip try. Although drip trays make me nervous with my setup the size of the pump and how it pumps the water into the filter allows fairly large size debres to pass through the pump and could clog a drip tray.

I am pretty sure this time the Bacteria died from zero water movement, zero heating, and zero food when the gfi tripped while I was not home for a few days. I think that coupled with the fact that possibly my fish are out growing the amount of bio media, lead to this crash.

The first time and the one I am drawing from in this thread was 100% because I went from over 5000gph through a 220 gallon tank to only 700gph, there was simply not enough circulation and the bacteria was not really seed and populated for a slow flow setup.
 
To the Original Op get a sponge filter for extra bb, get one in your tank and dont clean it often, if your bb crashes just squeeze the sponge filter into a established filter too boost the cycle
 
I'll try to help one more time. Three tings come to mind. Either your tank is underfiltered for the amount of fish you have or your current filtration system needs cleaning or you are overfeeding your fish. Your problem is not your tap water or the piping in your house. Don't overlook the obvious.
 
Thanks everyone, the crash was caused by hardware failure leaving the tank without electricity or intervention for up to 3 days. I think the mystery of how only ammonia bb died might not ever be know but I think you guys are on to something with the fact it that my fish out grew my current bio capacity leaving little room for some die off of the bacteria.
I have good news this second crash doesn't seem to be anywhere near as bad as the first as its already starting to go back down and stabilize. I have ordered more Seachem matrix, I am really sad that all teh pet stores around me stopped selling any type of biomedia except the tiny tiny box of biomax that they must think is made from gold for the price they sell.

I just want so say two things. Thanks everyone for helping even though there was some confusion and hostility, I truly appreciate it. Second I don't not now or did I ever think it was cause by my tap water, I know for a fact it was caused by hardware failure.



Thanks again for all your help.
 
No chance that there is dead/decaying matter somewhere in the tank? In my perusal of fish forums, the unnoticed passing of a little fellow can create an ammonia spike. The only times we've had ammonia spikes was after a long power outage, and when I fed copious, unlimited, all-you-can eat amounts of watermelon to my fish. While the nitrite-consuming BB took longer to establish when we fishless cycled our tank, they seem very hardy. The only time we have ever had nitrite readings was when we cycled the tank. So we've experienced ammonia spikes from die-off and also from introduction of an ammonia source to the tank with no nitrite spikes occurring.

An ammonia spike could be due to die-off of BB, or could be due to an unexpected ammonia source. If not a dead fish, decomposing food debris under a decoration?
 
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