Elevated Ammonia levels after bleaching tank

[sandaz]

Hi,

I was hoping to get some advice re elevated levels of Ammonia in my 38L tank. I've been struggling with a disease tank that did not react to any medication, so finally decided to bleach the tank (1/4 cup per litre of water) and start over again.

I rehomed the fish to another tank (which shares the same disease issue as I used some of the gravel from that tank when setting up the new tank). After letting the filter run for a few hours I emptied the tank out and rinsed it with tap water.

I cycled it for a week, adding Seachem Cycle daily as per instructions on the bottle. After a week I added some new fish (3 guppies and 3 mollies, all teenagers) into the tank which to date seems happy and disease free. I do weekly 50% water changes. With the holidays coming up I have decided to to check all my water readings. Nitrite = 0, Nitrate = 0, PH = 7.2 and Ammonia = 1

So can't understand why my ammonia levels are elevated? Fish are not darting or gasping. Is it possibly left over from the bleach of the tank? And that the Seachem Prime is removing toxic ammonia hence the happy fish? One of the fish have had some fry a couple of weeks ago which are all still alive and well too.

There is no "oily" layer floating on top of the water either.

Do I need to be concerned and is there anything I should do more other than my weekly water changes? I just did an extra 50% change today (4 days post previous) and have been adding Seachem Cycle every day since the weekend. But no change to ammonia levels.

Any help/opinions appreciated.

[Ira]

decided to bleach the tank (1/4 cup per litre of water) and start over again...After a week I added some new fish (3 guppies and 3 mollies, all teenagers) into the tank...Nitrite = 0, Nitrate = 0, PH = 7.2 and Ammonia = 1

So can't understand why my ammonia levels are elevated?

I'm not sure what there is to be confused about, sounds like a normal cycling tank. How long has it been since you added the fish? If it's been less than a month or so the tank probably won't be cycled yet.

[sandaz]

Tank shouldn't still be cycling having used the bottled bacteria. It's been about a month since I've added the fish.

[alanmin4304]

It obviously is in the first stages of cycling. You don't get ammonia from chlorine but you can get it from the reaction of chlorine with sodium thiosulphate or from fish metabolism.

[livingart]

With the amount of fish and the water changes you wont need the prime

[Adrienne]

There is no product available commercially called Seachem cycle so did you use stability or prime? If you use stability without actually adding the fish at the same time to produce waste, imo the bacteria is not going to build. Your tank has begun the cycling process since you added the fish.

Prime, from my understanding renders the ammonia 'safe' but you will still get a reading. Having never used it I can't verify whether this is right.

[sandaz]

Sorry confused the names of the products. I used Stability, and use Prime with water changes.

So tank can be in first stages of cycling a month after adding fish?

[Frankenfish]

Hi. I am really new to the fish tank fun, but after a long while of very stable tank, we seemed to get some ammonia spiking. Anyway, after a long while of far too frequent water changes with no seeming improvement, I tried the Seachem ammonia alert in tank sensor, which only alerts for free, not bound ammonia. If using one of the test kits that shows all ammonia, safe or not, you might like to try one of those instead (just don't go to Animates, as they are about $8 more than elsewhere). Cheers, Graeme

[Adrienne]

Sandaz, if you have low stocking and are doing regular water changes then yes, the tank could still be cycling. Because a reading of 1 is toxic to fish I believe that the ammonia is being held 'locked up' by the stability. Your best bet is to continue with small daily water changes while using Prime. If the tank is cycling you should see the ammonia drop and nitrite rise etc until the cycle is completed.

Frankenfish, If you are still getting ammonia appearing you will need to look for the cause. Could be any of the following - overstocking, filter not working properly or being cleaned out wrongly, overfeeding, water changes insufficient, plants decaying, dead fish. A tank once cycled should not show ammonia if the maintenance and care schedule is is right. If you have the ammonia sorted then well done

[Frankenfish]

It seemed to settle eventually, though one good outcome seemed to be a lot of eggs being laid. We had given up trying to get them to hatch (always seemed to just go mouldy) but tonight we discovered 2 quite large peppered Cory young :bggrn:

[sandaz]

It's been a while but just thought I would give an update to say of course you guys were right.

Treated the tank as a cycling tank and did small water changes every 3 days and it settled down eventually. I must have done a water changes and not add the tap water conditioner in. As time went on i could see ammonia dropping and nitrite spiking, and then nitrite coming down and nitrate spiking and then all settling down. All the fish survived the ordeal and tank is all happy now with lots of Molly fry in it!Settled