Ammonia spike

[cichlidfish]

I tested my water params for my 72g, and I got 10 ammonia 0 nitrite and 40+ nitrate. I got the same results after doing a 50% water change. This is an established tank with a rena xp3 filter, and I do weekly 30% water changes. I have an oscar and 4 silver dollars. My silver dollars are not doing as well as the oscar.
I don't know how this spike occurred because I didn't add any fish or over feed. I tested the water the week before and had 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 10 nitrate.
Should I continue doing water changes until the levels of ammonia and nitrate are down? What else can I do to bring my ammonia and nitrates down?

 

[Aquanero]

How old is your test kit? Did you test your tape water for a base line reading?

 

[Sarah88]

when was the last time you cleaned the filter? with my rena Xp3 i clean it every month or 2 in order to keep stuff from building up inside it. did anything die recently? how large is your oscar? i would test the water coming out of your tap and see what those levels are, maybe something with them changed? and with that many silver dollars and an oscar in that size tank i would do AT LEAST 50% changes, i dont think 30% would be enough unless they are all small

but yeah continue doing daily changes until you get the parameters in check and see if you can think of anything else that may have been different

 

[Amphilophus88]

If you got 10 ammonia before and after a 50% changes.. that just means your testkit is wrong.
Or.. maybe your water is too hot, my ammonia test started to give really weird readings when my water was getting hotter then 88 degrees, and I've heard that from other people as well.

 

[cichlidfish]

when was the last time you cleaned the filter? with my rena Xp3 i clean it every month or 2 in order to keep stuff from building up inside it. did anything die recently? how large is your oscar? i would test the water coming out of your tap and see what those levels are, maybe something with them changed? and with that many silver dollars and an oscar in that size tank i would do AT LEAST 50% changes, i dont think 30% would be enough unless they are all small

but yeah continue doing daily changes until you get the parameters in check and see if you can think of anything else that may have been different

I clean my filter once a week with tank water. I had a emperor 400 on there too, but the sand needs to be cleaned out. Maybe that would help to use that again? I've had this tank and the same fish for over 5 years and this is the first time I have had the ammonia ever spike and nitrates so high.
Maybe it is the test kit because I got the same reading before and after. I'm going to test again later. I am going to do daily water changes until the ammonia is 0 and the nitrates are back to 10-20.

Thanks!

 

[Sarah88]

sounds good, and yeah how old is the test kit? they do expire and once they get old you readings will be crazy even if your water is good

 

[MonteSS]

I know not just the filter contains beneficial bacteria in an established tank, BUT with that kind of bioload you could be killing too much of it by cleaning the canister that often.

I use my cannister as the main biological filter and a HOB to polish the water. I clean the canister once every three months or so and the HOB every week or two.

...Bill

 

[ShadowBass]

Get a new kit. It's likely gone bad (unless you suddenly forgot how to use/read it).

Get a new test kit, make sure you're following all the directions completely accurately, and if it reads the same test your tapwater. It's unlikely your tapwater would be that high in ammonia, but you should still test.
After a 50% water change your ammonia level should have dropped significantly.

What test kit are you even using? The API only shows up to 8ppm on the card. So you're either using some kind of other liquid test, or strips (and strips don't read accurate when fresh, and if they get old they don't read properly at all).

And 10ppm is high enough that your fish would likely be showing extreme stress, unless your pH is low enough to detoxify it. 10ppm is also high enough to make your biobacteria stop working.
Though, I think even with low pH 10ppm ammonia test reading might be high enough to still stress them.

 

[Sarah88]

I know not just the filter contains beneficial bacteria in an established tank, BUT with that kind of bioload you could be killing too much of it by cleaning the canister that often.

I use my cannister as the main biological filter and a HOB to polish the water. I clean the canister once every three months or so and the HOB every week or two.

...Bill

yeah i only clean mine every month or two but he said he cleans it in tank water so it shouldnt affect the biobacteria as long as the OP isnt really roughly scrubbing it or something, mine i just rinse the bio-media in tank gently so im assuming thats what the OP does as well

 

[cichlidfish]

Get a new kit. It's likely gone bad (unless you suddenly forgot how to use/read it).

Get a new test kit, make sure you're following all the directions completely accurately, and if it reads the same test your tapwater. It's unlikely your tapwater would be that high in ammonia, but you should still test.
After a 50% water change your ammonia level should have dropped significantly.

What test kit are you even using? The API only shows up to 8ppm on the card. So you're either using some kind of other liquid test, or strips (and strips don't read accurate when fresh, and if they get old they don't read properly at all).

And 10ppm is high enough that your fish would likely be showing extreme stress, unless your pH is low enough to detoxify it. 10ppm is also high enough to make your biobacteria stop working.
Though, I think even with low pH 10ppm ammonia test reading might be high enough to still stress them.

I think you are right, because I tested again and the ammonia was at 0 thank god! The nitrates were still high at 40ppm, so I did a 50% water change.