hi ya ammonia problem again

[aaron11]

:oops:

had my tank set up for at least 5 months?

anyway i had ammonia when i first cycled it for a month

then it was ok

Now its light green about 0.25 id say

I did half water change and added stress coat I wont feed them tomorrow (that will nearly kill me) and keep changing the water till its better

What i want to know is why if the test kitt says its light green all my fish are happy and the plants are doing well?

I tested my other tanks they all came out with a yellow reading

I lost my chart you check on but its light green i used small one on side of box

I have 55 litre tank

12 platy

12 guppies

ten neons and 5 cat fish

I have 2 small aqua one filters going, good substrate etc

Clean once a week

Could it be from washing out the filters in the tank water once a week?

I have really cut down feeding to 2 small feeds a day

just a few pinches and bottom pellets for cat fish

Any imput glady received

Merry christmas

[Southerrrngirrl]

IMO.. thats a lot of fish for such a small tank.. and you have "cut down" the feedings to twice a day?? That could have been your problem. I feed my fish once every couple of days.

[aaron11]

hi ya thanks I was told i could add more the lady i got the tank off had about 50 fish in there

But your right maybe its too many grr

hehe if it happens again suppose will have to give some away

I dont want those platies in my guppy only tank im sure they eat the babies lol

I let ya know how it goes

[aaron11]

hmm maybe its me and the food coz i give them this and give them that

I will only feed once a day from now on and see how that goes

[Stella]

Could it be from washing out the filters in the tank water once a week?

Yes.

Ideally the filters shouldn't need cleaning out much. It is the bacterial action that is really filtering the water, NOT mechanical gunk removal. If you keep cleaning them out the bacterial will not properly establish.

And if you are really struggling to go a day without feeding them, then you are probably still overfeeding them. Fish will ALWAYS act like you are starving them to death, no matter how often you feed them. :roll:

Remember the thing that most pet fish are killed from overfeeding rather than underfeeding? It is not that they get obese and develop Type II Diabetes, it is the uneaten food polluting the water, or if the food is all eaten, it is the extra poo decomposing and polluting the water.

Moral of the story: If you want to feed heaps, make sure every scrap is eaten and do lots more water changes.

How often and how much are you normally waterchanging?

[aaron11]

Hi stella thank you so much i will really cut down feeding

My guppy tank in my room i do half each week as it gets real mucky

I suspect my second hand fluval is on its last legs

This tank we are talking about (its about 50 litre) only one ten ltr bucket once a week should I do 2 buckets

The fish are happy as

I will take a bit more water out tonight and check

And yes to be honest sometimes I give them 2 good feeds they are always so hungry !

hehe thanks for info

I also got a fry tank 22 ltr with 40 fry in it god

[lmsmith]

My guppy tank in my room i do half each week as it gets real mucky

I suspect my second hand fluval is on its last legs

This tank we are talking about (its about 50 litre) only one ten ltr bucket once a week should I do 2 buckets

The tank gets mucky because you're feeding too much and there are too many fish in the tank. You need to really cut down on the feeding to once a day, and miss 2 days a week.

Because you have so many fish in there, you should be doing lots of water changes to keep the water clean. I'd do 50% 2 or 3 times a week. You're doing 20% once a week now.

Hopefully changing how much and how often you feed and cleaning more often will keep all the levels fine.

[aaron11]

too many fish in there what a crock

my jebo has more fish in it and its spotless

And i aint changing the water 50 percent 3 times a week

Im going to get a 1200 ltr an hour filter

this tank the one that gets mucky I say its the guppies

as the other tank with more fish and less guppies and smaller filters is clean

Your prob right about the feeding though

[Mel]

Hi Aaron, I agree with Imsmith here, you will need to do more water changes - the smaller the tank the dirtier it gets quicker. 50% it's that much thats only 25 litres each time - I'm sure an extra bucket isn't to hard to take out. And i don't think a bigger filter will help IMO 1200ltr maybe to big for such a small tank.

And i aint changing the water 50 percent 3 times a week

Im going to get a 1200 ltr an hour filter

[Stella]

too many fish in there what a crock

my jebo has more fish in it and its spotless

And i aint changing the water 50 percent 3 times a week

You did ask for our advice, if you only wanted advice that you wanted to hear you should have specified that :roll:

Cleaning the filters once a week would be a hell of a lot more time and effort than siphoning out and replacing an extra bucket of water more often.

If you think the filter is clogging up with solid muck, try getting a sponge-filter sponge (around $5 from pet shop) and fitting that over the inlet to the filter. Takes a bit of stretching. Then it acts as a pre-filter trapping all the debris and you can rinse it out easily when you do your waterchanges. It means the actual filter is not getting clogged and should theoretically never need opening and cleaning and it will work better without the disturbance or muck.

Of course that depends on the type of filter inlet you have... but you get the idea.

[aaron11]

hi lssmith is talking about my guppy tank that dont have the ammonia but gets dirty

I agree with the feeding but I dont think there is too many fish in there

I take all the babies out there is another 15

I dont mind changing half the water once a week but dont think i need to do it several times

Im on the hunt for a bigger tank if I can get a reasonable priced one with stand

I am going to buy a 4 or 5 foot one but my partner said im not allowed till we move

Year your advice is good I have found the Uk forum the ppl are a bit more friendly

[lmsmith]

We are trying to give you advice based on the information you give us. The quality of our advice is directly related to the quality of the information we get.

I agree with Mel, a 1200lph filter is a waste of time for you. It's too much for the tank, and filtration doesn't always fix ammonia problems, you need to take out the source of the ammonia too. Imagine being in a sealed toilet and someone farts in there. Having a fan isn't going to help, you need to open the window. Same goes with the fish tank. Because you've been cleaning the filter material, the filter isn't processing the ammonia, it's just pushing water around. If you leave the filter for a bit to cycle properly, cut down on feeding and increase your water changes until the filter is working, the problem will go away. To stop the filter from clogging up, do what Stella suggested, it works great.

[aaron11]

yes i rang the pet shop there isnt too much fish in there they said cut down feeding

I have just drained 3/4 of the water out

there was one dead platty and the test showed ammonia again ! grrr

Dunno why when the tank looks so perfect

Oh well I have 50 guppy fry if they all die

thanks for the help

I will get the sponge i need thta for my fry tank and try it on these small filters

I do want a new filter though the elithim i got for my turtle is good

[lmsmith]

Agh, I don't know why we're all wasting out time trying to help you if you're going to call a pet shop. Most people in pet shops have no idea what they're doing with fish. Most of them probably don't keep fish. Like stella said, if you only want the advice you want to hear, tell us what you want us to tell you and it will make this whole process easier.

[aaron11]

:lol: funny the pet shop said that most of you on here give out bad advice

Person i know in the shop worked there for 15 yrs

but thanks i will take on board what you said abotu not feeding so much and also the water changes cheers

something is wrong to get ammonia in a tank that looks perfect that has been set up for so long cheers

[Mel]

Hi Aaron, Yes i think it'll be a good idea to cut right back on feeding - I know it's easy to overfeed, thats my biggest problem aswell.

But I strongly advise you do daily waterchanges even if it's only 20% untill the ammonia levels show 0 again.

And the sponge filters are excellent to use when you have fry as it's also a good food source for the babies.

Good luck and i hope things work them self out in your tank

[aaron11]

Mel thanks i did something stupid and took most of the water out

I will test it again tomorrow and do 20 percent like you said and test daily

Dunno why im having problems still

I wont feed till tomorrow thanks for your help

happy new yr

[Mel]

It shouldn't matter to much as long as you didn't clean your filter aswell

I know all to well what it's like when your tank goes out of whack, very fustrating especially when alls been well for so long then all of a sudden things start going wrong.

All i can think of have you added anything new in there, like any new fish - that may have caused the filter to overload

[aaron11]

i cleaned the dead plants off the filters

and no just one fish out of another tank which i checked that is fine

It would be from not having the light on so much??

maybe i should clean once a week and take out half

I will take some more out tomorrow like you said

this happend before but no fish died

[Mel]

Hi, no the light wouldn't have anything to do with it.

Ammonia is caused by the fish waste and uneaten foods. I really think it is just abit high because of overfeeding - so just cut back on the food and more water changes and you should be all good

[aaron11]

thanks i did a real good stone vacum

I did notice a lot of plant wasit my plants in my other tank with the standard old light are doing better than in the curved glass jebo lol

Should i test again tonight or leave till tomorrow

i hope no more fish die oh well time for some replacements lol :bounce:

[Mel]

Hi, I was going to ask if you've done a vaccum

I don't really know to much about plants but I don't think they produce ammonia, but like i said I don't really know - maybe someone else may know about that

I would proberly leave it till tomorrow - not much more you can do

[aaron11]

Thanks mel

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[Adrienne]

I had an ammonia spike about 2 weeks ago that caused the death of 1 discus and 10 - 20 rummynose, cardinals & neons. The cause I think was that the 2200lph cannister filters fine wool was clogged, and the fact that the long hours I was working meant that I was only water changing every 4-5 days instead of the usual 2-3 but I also wonder if the warmer weather and night temperatures are not helping. There's several of us from Auckland that have had issues with tanks of late so maybe theres a contributing factor like our water supply as well.

My suggestions are as the others, more water changes which will bring your ammonia down to 0 but you will need to continue to change water regularly until you work out why its going up.

I feed my fish 2x a day but only feed the bottom dwellers every 2-3 days so that they clean up any scraps on the bottom of the tank.

By the way, there are a lot of very very experienced forum members and fish breeders who contribute to this forum. They are willing to give their time and advice to anyone who asks and in some circumstances will visit and assist. The lfs is wrong (and its probably one I visit regularly), the majority of assistance is good and worthwhile following. But at the end of the day its up to you to read through everything and decide what works best for you. I have met a lot of the Auckland forum members and a few from out of Auckland and they are very very nice friendly people.

[Caryl]

You say you found a dead platy in there. How long had it been there? That would cause an ammonia spike as it fouled the water. The extra water changes are always the first defense against high ammonia readings.

What sort of Aqua One filters are they? If they are the small internal type these clog very quickly (my Shark ones certainly do) and I only use them as spares or back-ups.