increasing nitrite and ammonia

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abelman

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Jun 2, 2004
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I've had my 72 gallon community freshwater aquarium for a couple of years now and for the first time - last week, I began to have a problem with my nitrite and ammonia. I noticed several of my fish seemed to be gasping for air at the top of the tank, so I tested my water and found that my nitrite was around 4 ppm and my ammonia was about 6 ppm. Since I had just done a 1/3 water change and had cleaned the tank quite well, I assumed the problem was coming from my tap water. However, I tested the tap water and it seems fine. Since then, I have lost a few fish, and I performed several partial water changes, which initially lowers both the nitrite and ammonia, but they both keep creeping back up. I also lowered my PH from 7.2 to 6.9, added some salt, and added phosphate remover, nitrazorb and activated carbon to my Eheim cannister filter, in addition to the Ehfimech, Ehfisubstrat and ChemiPure that was in there already. Now, the fish appear to be ok, but I just tested the water and I'm getting around 2 ppm nitrite and 5 ppm ammonia.
Since the problem began, I have been cutting down on my feeding and the number of fish has reduced from around 15 to 10 (so neither of those should be a problem at this point).
Any idea what could be causing this? Suggestions?
Thanks for your help.
 
Ammonia and nitrite spikes in established tanks are usually caused by damage to the nitrifying bacteria. You cleaned your tank "really well". Could you have cleaned it to the point of removing all the beneficial bacteria? (Been there, done that:rolleyes: )
 
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I agree that something happened to your biofilter. It could be from the cleaning, although if you didn't do anything to the filter I'd be surprised if you'd get that sort of spike. Did you replace filter media at the same time?

I'd also wonder about your water supply. Specifically, if you're on a municipal system, did they recently switch to chloramine from chlorine (which might have damaged the biofilter).

Finally, have you treated the tank with any medications or treatments? Any additives that might have damaged the biofilter?

Jim
 
thanks for all your help.
Now, my nitrite seems to have leveled out at O, but my Ammonia is still pretty high - about 6 ppm. I haven't found any dead fish in the aquarium, and I haven't medicated too much. Any other ideas for my ammonia problem?
 
Have you had your results confirmed? Test kits do expire, and tend to give high results after their useful life.

If your nitrites and ammonia are actually that high, you should have lost every fish in the tank--very toxic levels. I'd get the test results confirmed, and also look into any changes in the water source, as suggested above. Many communities are having the water treatment switched to chloramines, since it is stabler than chlorine.
 
thanks again for all your help.

I tried another test kit, changed some water, lowered the ph to 6.85, temperature to 79

Now I'm getting consistent readings of 0 ppm of nitrite, but 6-7 ppm of ammonia. since the fish seem fine with it, I assume that the ammonia is detoxified. Is ammonia still problematic even if it's detoxified? Any ideas as to how I can lower it?
thanks
 
Too much of it yes can still be toxic...tho its not as toxic as just plain old amonia.....i would think you would remove a lot of the detoxified amonia with water changes. This seems funny to me because about 2 months after i cycled and added fish and plants my nitrite was 5ppm and amonia was sooo far off the charts that the lady laughed (i even went to another pet store to confirm that their test was right), yet none of the fish looked distressed (just little danios at the time) and i diddnt lose any of them, I just did some water changes and after about 2 weeks everything slowly came back down. BUt ya thats the first time someones said truthfully how in the hell are your fish still alive....and they after a year they are still doing great!!
 
Seaman

Danios are notoriously hardy fish! Years ago it was common for LFS retailers to suggest that you cycle your tank with them. Guppies are another hardy fish, but all the cross breeding has weakened many of them.

Abelman

I agree with the posters who believe that your biofiltration has suffered some sort of shock. What's confusing me however is that your nitrite feel back to zero so quickly. The bacteria that convert nitrite to nitrate grow much slower than those that convert ammonia to nitrite. Here are a couple of links to articles by Dr. Timothy Hovanec on subjects relating to your situation.

http://www.marineland.com/articles/18BasicFilt.asp]Link to article on filtration[/URL]
 
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