Ammonia levels NEVER go down

I

Iceman_78_98

AC Members
Sep 23, 2004
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Hello,

I have very serious ammonia problem in my tank. Here's some information about the tank

20 gallon tall
live plants - (Wisteria, Water Sprite and some Swords)
Aqua Clear 200 Filter with a sponge and 2 carbon filters
Approx temp 78 F
Fish - 3 Scissor tail rasbora, 1 siamese algae eater, and a small convict
Have had it for about 1 and half now
weekly water changes - 10%
I never replace the bio filter cartidges. Just rinse them with aquarium water changed weekly.

About 4 months ago, the tank was cleaned pretty thoroughly by someone in my family without consulting me first. Obviously, you know what happen next. The cycling period began again. At first, I thought the rise in ammonia was all part of the natural biological process and that it would eventually disappear. So I waited for the bacteria to develop again. Nitrites appeared next which seemed normal to me. What seemed kind of odd to me was that when Nitrite began to peak you would normally see a drop in ammonia. That wasn't the case in my tank the ammonia levels just kept on increasing with the Nitrite and when the Nitrite disappeared, the ammonia stayed.

I've tried everything. Changing 40% water every other day. Didn't help. Ammonia level would drop slightly but would come back right away overnight. Finally lost patience and teared down the tank. Refilled the tank with clean water. At first ammonia level was close to 0. But overnight, ammonia jumped back up to 4ppm/L.

What in the world could be causing the ammonia to rise so rapidly? And why isn't it going down?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

-WC
 
Contact your water utility and see if they started using chloramines instead of just chlorine. Chloramine requires treatment, first to break it down to ammonia and chlorine, remove the chlorine, and then bind the ammonia to ammonium. If you are using a water treatment product, it is possible that this is happening--but your test kit is still detecting the bound ammonium. Just a guess, and a place to start.

Might help to post your stats, as well--KH, pH, etc.
 
Could it be that whoever cleaned the tank might have used Windex or any other cleaner that contains Ammonia? I'm not sure if it's a 100% true but I've heard that the ammonia in these cleaners can soak through the glass of the tank. Maybe someone else has a better explanation.
 
rednekbish said:
Could it be that whoever cleaned the tank might have used Windex or any other cleaner that contains Ammonia? I'm not sure if it's a 100% true but I've heard that the ammonia in these cleaners can soak through the glass of the tank. Maybe someone else has a better explanation.
Click to expand...

I hope that's not true. I use Windex wipes on the business side of my tanks every month or so. I use the wipes to prevent overspray... which might possibly be a factor on Ice's tank.
 
Windex won't penetrate glass, especially not the amount used to wipe the tank down. Fumes from the cleaners being injected by an air pump is more likely to occur, but couldn't possibly be the issue here. Even if ammonia were dumped into the tank, the bacteria colonies would be able to grow big enough to process it, which isn't happening. Hence, my guess is that either something is inhibiting the bacteria, or there is something else that's causing a false positive test result.
 
A solution for ammonia problem.

I had the same problem with my salt water tank. My buddy hooked me up on two products that have work very well. The first is named Aqua Chargers. They come in a bottle and look like little blue snowflakes. I took these and put them in a bio bag then place them at the bottom of my Aqua 110 bio filters. The scond product is called Detox 2. I did the same thing place the appropriate amount per gallon that is stated in the directions on the bottle. My water has been perfect.

The key is getting the tank to cycle and you need the right bacteria to do that.

good luck. :dance
 
Oh I'm pretty sure there's chloramine in the tap water. I've tested the tap water using my test kit and there's a 0.25 ppm/L reading. But this doesn't explain why I have a ammonia reading of 8 ppm/L. I do treat the water with Ammo-Lock before adding it to the tank. And I use Aquarium Pharmactical chemicals to do the testing.

I'm not sure what the kH is in my tank but the pH is between 6.5-7.0. So pretty acidic.

And no, Windex wasn't used to clean the tank :)

I just can't understand why the beneficial bacteria isn't breaking down the ammonia. Maybe there's something in my tank that is inhibiting the growth of this type of bacteria.
 
CbaileySW said:
I had the same problem with my salt water tank. My buddy hooked me up on two products that have work very well. The first is named Aqua Chargers. They come in a bottle and look like little blue snowflakes. I took these and put them in a bio bag then place them at the bottom of my Aqua 110 bio filters. The scond product is called Detox 2. I did the same thing place the appropriate amount per gallon that is stated in the directions on the bottle. My water has been perfect.

The key is getting the tank to cycle and you need the right bacteria to do that.

good luck. :dance
Click to expand...

What exactly do these products do? Are they only for Salt water tanks?

Thanks for your help.
 
Do you use the Aquarium Pharm Nessler test or the salicylate test? The Nessler test has a single bottle of reagent, while the salicylate test has 2 or more. The latter is what you want if you're using AmmoLock2. Using a Nessler test with AmmoLock will give you a false reading.

Hope this helps...

Jim
 
Ammonia Spike

The Aqua Chargers put the beneficial bacteria back in the tank. They can be use for fresh water or salt water. The Detox 2 will also help filter the ammonia out of your system and also can be used for freshwater.

I have a 50 gallon tank and I use twice the recommendation of Aqua Chargers.
I also did a partial water change about 20% before I added the Aqua Chargers and the Detox 2. My ammonia spike went down with in 5 days. Do not use more than what is recommend for the Detox 2.
 
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