filtration and ammonia help

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ekd16y5

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 12, 2013
16
0
0
Sydney
I have a 5x2x2 tank with a 3 foot sump. The tank has an inch of gravel in it and has been cycled.
However every time I clean the gravel ammonia peaks and I have to cycle the tank again. Ive concluded all the beneficial bacteria is in the gravel and not in the sump
In the sump I have 10l of matrix and 5l k1 media I even have media from an old tank to seed it but the bacteria has died off
Plz help doing wc daily to keep ammonia down
What to do to keep fish alive and seed the sump
 
ekd16y5 said:
I have a 5x2x2 tank with a 3 foot sump. The tank has an inch of gravel in it and has been cycled.
However every time I clean the gravel ammonia peaks and I have to cycle the tank again. Ive concluded all the beneficial bacteria is in the gravel and not in the sump
In the sump I have 10l of matrix and 5l k1 media I even have media from an old tank to seed it but the bacteria has died off
Plz help doing wc daily to keep ammonia down
What to do to keep fish alive and seed the sump
Click to expand...

Hello; Perhaps the ammonia spike is from an increase of organic detritus decay stirred up during gravel cleaning and thus a temporary spike in the ammonia. It is my understanding that the beneficial bacteria (bb) will colonize multiple surfaces in addition to the substrate. There should be bb in the sump as well as the gravel and other surfaces. Acording to one source the bb cling strongly to the various surfaces and are not easily dislodged by simple rinsing.

Should my contention prove correct, it would follow that a base issue may be overfeeding. This would allow the uneaten food to settle in the gravel and perhaps somewhat slow the decay process. When the gravel is cleaned the stirring up of the organic detritus might encourage a spike in the decay of the stuff in the water column.
I also recall having a large plecostomas, 14 plus inches, that produced copious amounts of feeces. Plant eating animals can have an ineffecient digestive system resulting in up to a high portion of the waste containing undigested food material. I introduced ramshorn snails into the tank with the pleco and they reduced the feeces to much finer detritus and also generated a spike in the growth in the hornwort plants in the tank

Much may depend on the method used to clean the gravel. It would seem unlikely that a basic siphon cleaning of the gravel would dislodge a significant amount of the bb. If you clean with a more aggressive method, then some destruction of bb colonies might happen and the balance between the bb population and the ammonia could be disturbed for a short time. The other bb colonies in the tank should soon increade the population and bring things back into balance.

Here is a link to an article that discusses the issue. http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/nitrogen_cycle.html

Good luck
 
I just googled the Syndney water quality report, and Sydney uses chloramine as a disinfectant.
So when you do a water change, unless you use a chloramine neutralizer, you may see a slight spike in your test, perhaps up to 0.1ppm/mg/L depending on the ratio of chlorine to ammonia the water supplier uses. If you are not using a chloramine/chlorine neutralizer, this could be the problem.
My water provider also uses choramine at a 5 /1 ratio and without a neutralizer I see a slight 0.02ppm bump in ammonia directly after a water change that may last an hour or less until the beneficial bacteria use it up, if I don't use a neutralization product.
You do not provide ammonia result numbers (either ppm or mg/L), or stocking levels, so it's really hard to determine if that is your problem or not.
If your sump is set up correctly and your tanks have been set up long enough to really be cycled (at least 2 months), there is no reason the biological medias bacteria is not doing its job.
Unless the tanks are very overstocked, and a simple vacuuming reduces bacterial numbers enough to create a mini cycle.
 
maybe your bio filtration is fouled? mine was at one point and i saw my ammonia rocket through the roof. i had to remove all my bio media, bag it, then rinse it in hot water. -the type that kills bacteria so my tank had to cycle again.
but sinse then ive had now problems :)
oh and add a mechanical filter before the bio media
 
ekd16y5 said:
I have a 5x2x2 tank with a 3 foot sump. The tank has an inch of gravel in it and has been cycled.
However every time I clean the gravel ammonia peaks and I have to cycle the tank again. Ive concluded all the beneficial bacteria is in the gravel and not in the sump
In the sump I have 10l of matrix and 5l k1 media I even have media from an old tank to seed it but the bacteria has died off
Plz help doing wc daily to keep ammonia down
What to do to keep fish alive and seed the sump
Click to expand...
You are absolutly right Sir and when you vacum you are damaging with only 1 inch of gravel i fail to see why even vacum or at least just skim the surface of the gravel to get big chunks the rest who cares ys know....
 
thanks for the help guys
i dont think my tank is overstocked i just have 4 juvenile uaru and a baby pollini ( mind you die to ammonia increase all have seem to have eye problems)
i have done the cycle twice now both fishless both goes according to plan and never a spike when doing a water change. However the minute i do a gravel clean ammonia spikes and it doesnt seem to settle down until i take the fish out and let it go through it paces ( mini cycle) the ammonia will peak at 0.5 and stay there, i do not even clean the gravel all at once just one third to a half. i did query over feeding so i just feed it once every two days.
since the tank is at my workplace i can no longer move fish out so i have been adding prime and doing daily water change as much as i can
any help to get the sump going and get ammonia down be much appreciated.
 
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