Ammonia levels are off the chart...

[Jeffd1979]

I don't know what the heck is going on.. I have had my tank set up for 3 1/2 months now and about 2 weeks ago my ammonia levels spiked... The nitrate and nitrite levels were rather high as well.. In the past week the nitrate and nitrite levels have went back to zero but the ammonia levels are at, at least 7ppm... they have held steady now for about a week... Fish seem perfectly fine... what could be going on???

tank is a 37 gallon
emperor 280 filter
3 baby quarter size angels
2 albino corry cats

[NatakuTseng]

Well 7ppm is enough to kill anything in a very short period of time. So did you add anything to the tank? Are your test tubes clean? How old is the test kit? I have had a couple similar instances when I added mylasian driftwood, had a huge ammo and nitrite spike, I mean off the charts, so high the cards didn't go that high, should have killed the fish, but the fish were fine. Lasted about a week, then everything was back at zero, so I'm wondering if something in that driftwood doesn't throw off the test kit readings, cause by all rights my rams, who are very sensitive to polluted water, were fine and even spawned that week.

[Jeffd1979]

Originally posted by NatakuTseng
Well 7ppm is enough to kill anything in a very short period of time. So did you add anything to the tank? Are your test tubes clean? How old is the test kit? I have had a couple similar instances when I added mylasian driftwood, had a huge ammo and nitrite spike, I mean off the charts, so high the cards didn't go that high, should have killed the fish, but the fish were fine. Lasted about a week, then everything was back at zero, so I'm wondering if something in that driftwood doesn't throw off the test kit readings, cause by all rights my rams, who are very sensitive to polluted water, were fine and even spawned that week.

Didn't add anything to the tank.. I did a 30% water change yestarday... Still at 7ppm tonight.. Test kit is about 3 months old.. Tested the tap water and it is fine.. put some ammonia lock into it yesterday... Hopefully it will go down soon... Don;t know what could be wrong..

[ScottoMacD]

Sounds like a tank that had a bacteria die off and is cycling again, or a bad tester.

It doesn't surprise me that after a 30% water change there was very little change. Mathematically that would only put it at around 5ppm. On most test charts there is very little difference in the green coloring of 5ppm and 7ppm

I would try a massive water change (75%) and see what it measures at. Right after the water change and then about 12 hours later. It should be around 1.5ppm after right after the big change.

Another thing you should do is rinse out your filter media in some bucketed tank water to remove any decaying matter but leaving the good bacteria that you have alone and intact.

When you did the water change, did you vaccum the gravel?
I ask because I am wondering if there may be a lot of waste and uneaten food in there. That can cause an ammoina spike quite fast


This are just some things that might help. If there is no improvement form there I would suspect the tester and bring a sample to your LFS tomorrow morning to be tested. Either way the water change will do you no harm.

[aquariumfishguy]

7 ppm would be enough to kill off any and all your fish. That being said, if they are all fine and dandy I would look into getting another test kit. That doesnt sound right...ammonia level dont just spike to 7 ppm for nothing. Either someone drastic took place or the test kit was bad. I'm thinking more towards the latter theory...;)

[chefkeith]

A few weeks ago I tested Ammolock 2 and found that it can possibly distort tests.

Here's a link to that thread
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21108

I'll also add that-
If you have have chloramines in your tap water- The bigger the water change, the higher your ammonia will read.

The water conditioner, changes the chloramine to chorine and ammonia, then it nuetralizes the chlorine and changes the ammonia to ammonium. What you are reading is ammonium.

[Uncle Bete]

Hey Jeff, I'm in Concord :)

At first I was thinking something went a little wrong, because of the ammonia levels, but it hadn't killed anything? Like has been said, thats high enough to kill about anything.
Then I was thinking more of something major went wrong because your showing ammonia, but 0 nitrite AND 0 Nitrate. 0 Nitrate does happen, but not for very long. Usually because of really good growing plants or massive water changes. With the latter it show at least show something the next day.

You said you tested the tap water, so that could be taken as a good indication that the test kit is working.

I haven't went and read the threads that were mentioned yet, about ammo lock etc. But here's a little test I just thought of that you could try.

Get a gallon of tap water.
Test Ammonia in it.
Add your Chlorine Remover
Test Ammonia
Add Ammo Lock
Test Ammonia

Another thought....
Have you cleaned the bio-wheel, or is it possible that some tap water(Chlroine) got to it?