Help! Ammonia and Nitrite Spikes after Cycle!

V

vitesse

AC Members
Oct 7, 2005
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Woodbridge, VA
OK, maybe I'm just too meticulous but here we go:

- 50 Gallon Bow-front
- Eheim 2215 Bio filter
- Whisper 40
- 1-week-old African-Root wood
- 2 artificial plants
- gravel substrate
- 6" Pl*co
- 3.5" Albino Cichlid
- 4" Oscar
- 6" Oscar

I adopted the fish from a friend who was going to euthenize them and I've been working diligently to find a home for them because I know that I am over-stocked for a tank this size.

I cycled the tank last month and was all set to go. The fish have been in there for almost 3 weeks without any problems.

Suddenly yesterday my toxin levels jumped out of the blue and the water clouded over over night!

Ammonia went from a daily 0.25-1.0 to 2-3.
Nitrites went from 0.25 to 2.0.
Nitrates went from 20 to 60.

I had treated my wood by boiling it and expected to get leeching, so I added more carbon to my Whisper40 a week ago as some suggested in other threads. I have not changed anything else but so far I've done 20%-30% water changes last night and this morning.

Any advice?
 
If you had any ammonia/nitrite readings the tank was actually not completely cycled to begin with, or something interupted the cycling process. The only thing you can really do is more/larger water changes. Ammonia levels that high can kill the fish in no time, or leave them with long term problems. Are you vacuuming the gravel with the water changes? I would also cut way back on the feeding, maybe only every couple of days for a while
 
Did you do a fishless cycle? If so... from what I understand, putting alot of fish into a tank at the same time can cause a "mini-cycle" because the biological filter is not able the handle a large load of toxins that quick... other then that I dunno how to help
 
carbon may be full up

Ok, the tank was stable with the fish you had, then you added more fish. Yup, a mini-cycle.

Now if you change the carbon, you will absorb some of that I think.


Also, do a water change, the nitrates are too high and will only go higher. This will help get the ammonia and nitrite under control as well. You will just need to keep doing small water changes until it all settles out again.

Take it easy on feeding, more food = more ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate.

Be sure the filter pads are pretty clean, not too clean but not gunky either, swish off in old tank water if necessary.
 
shediddily said:
Did you do a fishless cycle? If so... from what I understand, putting alot of fish into a tank at the same time can cause a "mini-cycle" because the biological filter is not able the handle a large load of toxins that quick... other then that I dunno how to help
Click to expand...


Yeah, good point. I did do a fishless cycle but I could see having another bacteria bloom with this much stock. I was reading 0/0 NH3/NO-2 until 2 days ago. That is when the basline numbers of NH3 and No-2 jumped above Zero.

I had fishlessly-cycled the tank completely but I think the load over-ran the bacteria. I was up to 4ppm of ammonia in my cycle before adding fish. It is possible that if the levels are even higher that the bacteria might need a chance to catch up.

Why would everything go so well for 3 weeks though?
 
Update:

:dance:

I did another waterchange the day after I started this thread and added my AquaClear 300 with 2 pieces of foam and a carbon packet to absorb the mess.

The water cleared up within 2 hours and the gang was back to begging for food and chasing each other around in no time.

Thanks for your posts.

Anybody interested in a 10-month-old Oscar and his 5-month-old red partner in the DC Metro area?
 
Roan Art,

These guys are like dogs! They pep up and come to the top of the tank near you when you enter the room, they eat out of your hand, they play, and they are hardy fish.

They'll need a minimum of between 100 and 110gal if they are gonna be by themselves.

I have a 7" Oscar and a 4" Oscar that need a home soon. If you are really interested PM me.
 
vitesse said:
Roan Art,

These guys are like dogs! They pep up and come to the top of the tank near you when you enter the room, they eat out of your hand, they play, and they are hardy fish.

They'll need a minimum of between 100 and 110gal if they are gonna be by themselves.

I have a 7" Oscar and a 4" Oscar that need a home soon. If you are really interested PM me.
Click to expand...
Ack! I heard Oscars were pretty cool and I was thinking about looking into it, but I won't be doing anything close to 100g until April. Sorry about that.

I'll keep an ear out, if you like.

Roan
 
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