Ammonia Problem

[srstickler]

Hola,

Had a 28 Gallon tank for 2 years now and thought I was getting good. Hadn't lost any fish until just recently.

I lost 2 Tiger Barbs the same day, so I thought something must be wrong. Upon searching, I found that my Chinese Algae Eater had literally crawled under a rock and died, probably a week before I found it too. Ammonia thru the roof.

So.....I did 50% water changes for 3 days and did 25% water changes for about another 5-6 days. I still continued to lose fish however, at the rate of about 1 per day. I've changed the filter and also removed the filter and cleaned inside the unit itself. I've vacuumed the gravel about 5 times in the last 1.5 weeks also. I've been adding Ammo Lock every 2 days also.

I haven't lost any fish for 4 days now, but I continue to test my water daily.
After this whole episode, I cant seem to get the NH3 down below .50 ppm, no matter what I do. Nitrite's are zero. The remaining fish still seem stressed. I've removed all rocks, fake plants, everything from the tank. But like I said, I cant get the ammonia back down to zero no matter what I do. I'm completely stumped as to what to do to remove the rest of the ammonia.

Anyone have any suggestions as to what the problem could still be?

Many thanks,

Sean

[the_dougie]

hows your biological filter? maybe somethings wrong with it. also some fish stores sell the bacteria which converts ammonia into nitrates and then into nitrite (or whatevers the least lethal...) you could use the extra bacteria stuff, (im still kind of new with this but that should help) keep doing water changes.

[Blinky]

It sounds like you may have over cleaned, and damaged the biological filter. Bio-Spira is supposed to be very effective for helping establish the bacteria you need, most other products are thought by many to be ineffective.
If your LFS will give you some 'filter squeezings' from a dirty filter or even a piece of sponge or handfull of gravel from an established tank, putting that in your filter will help jump start things. You'll need to do large (50% +), daily water changes for a while until things settle. Whatever you do, don't clean the filter (rinse media in a bucket of tank water if it gets dirty, don't change it or run it under the tap) or you'll lose the bacteria again.

[daveedka]

Any chance your water company switched to Chloramines? If you use simple dechlorinator on chloramines, you get ammonia as a leftover. If the problem is the bio-filter you will see signs of cycling, and your levels will increase for at least a few days. What are your tapwater test numbers, and what are the rest of your tank test results.