ammonia problem HELP!!!

[dwgeorge84]

HELP!!!!!

i have a a new tank for a while now about 4 weeks and my ammonia is threw the roof what can i do to help i have a 25 gal tank with a 30 GAL rated Bio Wheel filter and the fish i have in it are a s follows

1. 2 Ballon molly's
2. 4 Guppies
3. 2 Small little bottom dwelling frogs
4. Pleco
5. Marbel Shrimp

my ammonia is thre the roof i have tryed the pellet ammonia removers the liquid ammonia removers . all that stuff my..

My ph is aroud 6.8- 7.2
all that stuff is good but my ammonia is threw the roof
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1 more Question as well how long should i have the light on for in the tank ???

 

[dorkfish]

start doing 50% water changes to keep the amonia level below .25, do it daily if it's nessisary. After amonia settles down to zero, and nitrite spikes and settles down to zero as well, keep up a maintenence routine of doing weekly water changes of 30-50% using a gravel vacum.

Your fish population seems ok, except the pleco is probably a common pleco wich grows to an adult size of 2 feet and is the messiest fish you can buy in my honest opinion, and you added the fish a little to quickly. Use the Freshwater Fish Photos & Profiles at age of aquariums to identify your "pleco" so we can tell you wether or not you have to bring it back or not, to insure the health of the whole tank and actually permit you to safely add more fish.

 

[gatotsu77]

There are a few things we will need to better understand your situation. (as you may find is said on just about every thread that begins this way) 1: Did you cycle the tank? (and if you did, how did you do it, and did you use test kits to verify the ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite levels?) 2: How long have those fish been in the tank? 3: Did you introduce them all at once? 4: How big is the pleco? 5: What exactly are all of your water params right now? (ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, hardness, alkalinity, ph, and temp) 6: How often do you do water changes, and how much water do you change each time?

That bio load does not seem to exceed the tank's capacity, but if you didn't cycle it, and especially if you introduced everything at once, that could pose a serious issue. Another thing I would like to point out is that the 30g bio wheel filter really is only best for about 15g of water, perhaps even a 10g tank. Try to get enough filtration that the supposed gallons of water the filter(s) can handle is at least twice the volume of your tank, and more would not hurt. Take a look at the filters on my 55 in my sig. I have 260 gallons of filtration (supposedly) on a 55... yet I still do a lot of water changes to keep everything ideal.

Perhaps another issue is over-feeding. How much food are you giving your fish? Especially with that load, you really don't need to give them much... just enough flakes that the molly's and guppies will consume in approx 1-2 minutes tops. For the pleco, you would be best off giving him slices of zucchini and small pieces of romaine lettuce. (don't leave the veggies in the tank for more than 24 hours though, or it will really mess up your water) The marble shrimp is a filter-feeder, so he'll catch whatever is floating around in the water and eat it.

My suggestion to you would be to do a large water change (on the order of 40-50%) and then consider hooking up a secondary filter to try to slow the deterioration process of the water in the tank. You would be best served doing at least a 25% water change weekly, but until the ammonia comes down, you could do that much daily to try to help.

 

[LunchBox]

IME the "removers" don't actually remove anything.. they just detoxify the ammonia, which will still show up on a test.

if you want to reduce your ammonia, do the water changes aas previously suggested

good luck!

 

[jm1212]

check your temperature... higher temps mean lower oxygen levels, and the bacteria that get rid of harmful toxins like ammoina and nitire wont be getting enough oxygen

 

[joylynn]

If the ammonia level is really high you may even want to consider 2 50% water changes back to back (remove 50% of the water, add new conditioned water, remove 50% again immediately and add in conditioned water). This effectively reduces the ammonia by about 75%, whereas a single 50% water change will only reduce it 50%. I had nitrite problems when I cycled my tank with fish (I learned about cycling after fish were in the tank) and never got them under control until I did the 2 x 50% water changes all at once, then did about 30-40% daily from there until the tank cycled.