Got a .25 ppm amonia spike.

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aquaculture

Feeder Fish
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May 5, 2009
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No fish in the trank just snails was cycled using the product "cycle" , this was last week and now this amonia spike, all ive done is added more black sand did a 90 perecent water change because of forgeting to rinse the sand. Added clear fast to the new water because it was still cloudy.

What could have caused the ammonia spike none of the snails haver died, iam thinking it was from mixing up the new sand with the older sand.

I added a 10ml does of cycle today to get some bacteria added to the tank.
 
Probably too big of a water change while it's still cycling. Do small water changes for a few days and it should resolve itself with good filtration and light feedings.

I almost forgot. Certain products intended to cycle as tank use bacteria that do their job and die rather than establishing a population. I've always stolen live media from other tanks to cycle. You could try that to kickstart the process. If you get the amount of bacteria right, it works overnight. Seriously. I set up a fry tank on the fly when my angelfish had babies. No ammonia three days later. I just took bacteria from my Oscar tank.
 
Do you test your source water? Mine has ammonia in it, so I do water changes to get rid of nitrates, and then after the water change I show .25 or .5 ammonia. It's eaten by the bb by the next day.
 
I have half of the sponge part of my filter is from the polfiber foam on my two year old pond filter. so the used media part was covered it just wasn't cycling.

This 25 gal has become a cycling nightmare when i first stated my pond it cycled over a period of two weeks with just sitting out in the yard fishless, this tanks cycling is pissing me off. A month has gone by, while using bacteria from pond and the product cycle. cycle did help a whole lot it was fish safe for a week and then this ammonia spike happened today wtf is going on, the snails definately aren't being overfeed and nitrite and nitrates tested 0ppm only the ammonia was at a testable level and it was at .25ppm, using liquid api test kit.

my source water is perfect except for chlorine and chlormine so that isn't it.
 
I have and their aren't any dead snails just more baby snails. this spike seems to have come out of nowhere.
 
Make sure you're not adding water with chlorine or chloramine in it, as that will kill your bacteria.

If you were trying to cycle the tank with no waste load in it (no ammonia production), that won't work. You have to have ammonia to feed the bacteria to establish a population to keep your ammonia down to undetectable levels. If you add "cycle" to an empty tank with no ammonia, you're doing basically nothing. So, you're experiencing the initial spike as the snails and waste start producing ammonia.

Just watch the ammonia, keep it below about .25. Just do a ~20-30% water change when it hits .25. Should be reasonably safe for animals in the tank, but still let you establish your bio-filter. Use dechlorinated water.

If you want to spend the money, products like superbac, tetra safestart, any reputable live-bacteria additive should help cycle it more quickly. I don't have any experience with cycle in particular. Live plants also typically come with some of the requisite bacteria growing on them, and also eat ammonia themselves.
 
Ok, Iam not dense, and or mentally incompetant i treat my water before it ever hits the tank with prime and let it sit for ten minutes.

well i have and had an amonia source since the start of the tank , right when i first out water in it and treated it with prime i put in two small gambusa/mosquitofish and snails from my pond, just didn't need to get harassed again about using fish as a source of amonia in a cycle.

the gambusias are as healthy as they were and are bigger than before they were in the tank,gambusias are fry from the ones i keep in my pond and their bloodline, before i got them, has been kept in water conditons that would make you gag,a runoff pond. snails breed like crazy from the start .

with in the first couple days amonia would test a dark deep purple, way off the charts of api test kit.

so yes i figured when amonia wasn't at testable levels for a week, as in 0ppm, i was good until this friday.

thanks for ideas but i still need more i keep eliminating ideas what is this spike from?

the only thing i can think of is a bacteria die off some how, but how?
 
The only bb I believe in is Dr. Tim's One-and-Only. I've used many, and this is the only one I've used and seen any real results.
 
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