Ammonia

[tma]

I've got a 75 g with 2 oscars, a gar, and 2 parrots. I have a 20 g sump on the tank, and every time I feed them hikari cichlid gold pellets, some of the pellets get into the overflow and down into the sump, resulting in cloudy water and high ammonia levels. Anyone have tricks to get rid of the ammonia and clear the water fast

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[Clearwater guy]

can you put a screen over the overflow or stop the pump during feeding to keep that from happening?

Mike

 

[BigCountry]

Stopping the sump is a pita.

X2 a screen or something, maybe you have a medium sized fish net your not using? Lay it over the overflow box? Or even a sponge or pad or something. Or is the tank drilled?

Best way to remove ammonia is water changes. Use RO water if you can.

 

[tma]

Im gonna start unplugging the return pump during feeding so the food wont get pushed into the overflow

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[oneyedfish]

I'd try pre-filtering the overflow box.

 

[BigCountry]

Your gonna flood your sump every time you do that though. Depending on how your sump is setup that could be a pita.

 

[tma]

The sump wont overflow cuz the overflow box cuts off an inch under the normal water line

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[BigCountry]

I know it will not overflow, but it's still going to flood any baffles/chambers you have setup in there right?

 

[tma]

It didn't last night when I unplugged the return pump

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[MonsterMinis]

feed less more often... ammonia problems are a direct link to less then adequete biological filtarion/and/or inadequete water changes. Its not the food causeing the problem, the food is the by-product of the problem. Turning the sump off will only keep the food from getting into your sump... your ammonia is still going to be an issue. What are your nitrate/nitrite levels at? You're also over stocked, so that sump should be packed to the max.