Ok my main display tank's ammonia levels have sky rocketed recently. We're also in a water restricted county, due to drought. The ammonia never was this high before I cleaned the tank. Before cleaning the tank it was never this high. Now it's reading 1.0-2.0 
. I'm doing about 30% water changes every 3-4 days. And last night I put a bunch of Ammonia lock in the tank. That seemed to help the fish pretty instantly. But now I came down this morning and they are all breathing heavy. So I'll do another change, but 50%... keeping in mind this is a 220 Gallon tank.
But what could cause this sustained high level? This is how I cleaned the tank. The biomedia and the gravel all stayed in the tank, it did not get cleaned to keep the benificial bacteria healthy.
1. The wood was pressure washed with tap water.
2. The rocks and fake plants were soaked in a bleach solution and rinsed a first time.
a. then soaked in water with stress coat decholinator 24hrs
b. then soaked in tap water 24hrs
c. then rinsed
My wife was thinking it could be low levels of bleach leaching out, since bleach is alkaline and that could read as ammonia. But even if it was that she was saying that since it's not getting added to the water it should disipate over time with water changes. But at this point I'm not sure what I should do.
1. Should I continue to use amonia lock?
2. Should I get something else?
3. I'll keep doing water changes until, hoping the water department doesnt restrict our house (and they can and do do this)
I'm just outta ideas
. I'm doing about 30% water changes every 3-4 days. And last night I put a bunch of Ammonia lock in the tank. That seemed to help the fish pretty instantly. But now I came down this morning and they are all breathing heavy. So I'll do another change, but 50%... keeping in mind this is a 220 Gallon tank.But what could cause this sustained high level? This is how I cleaned the tank. The biomedia and the gravel all stayed in the tank, it did not get cleaned to keep the benificial bacteria healthy.
1. The wood was pressure washed with tap water.
2. The rocks and fake plants were soaked in a bleach solution and rinsed a first time.
a. then soaked in water with stress coat decholinator 24hrs
b. then soaked in tap water 24hrs
c. then rinsed
My wife was thinking it could be low levels of bleach leaching out, since bleach is alkaline and that could read as ammonia. But even if it was that she was saying that since it's not getting added to the water it should disipate over time with water changes. But at this point I'm not sure what I should do.
1. Should I continue to use amonia lock?
2. Should I get something else?
3. I'll keep doing water changes until, hoping the water department doesnt restrict our house (and they can and do do this)
I'm just outta ideas
