High Ammonia after 2 50% w/c
- Thread starter MIKE D
- Start date
I disagree with this statement 100%! While there is some beneficial bacteria residing on gravel and tank decorations, most nitrifying bacteria are in the filter. Keeping gravel clean with every water change is a must!
Did you clean your filter recently and do something that might have caused a sizeable bacteria dieoff in the filter? Add anything new like a medicine to the water recently that might have caused a die-off? It sounds like something made your biofilter crash so the ammonia is not getting converted.
Do you have some filter media from another tank you can use in the 72G if you are setting that up? If not, that tanks not going to be converting the ammonia either.
I have 5 tanks all cycled I could use some of theres. If I do a 100% will that get rid of my ammonia? I havent added any meds or cleaned my filter recently. I added more sand two weeks ago but I cleaned it very well. I make sure to clean everything before I put it into the tank. Im freeking out right now so if I come off a little rude Im sorry and I dont mean to.
If you are going to do 100% WC, you might as well just clean the whole tank, gravel, glass, etc. That would take care of it for sure.
If there's no ammonia in your tap water, the source of the ammonia in the tank is the fish. Which means for some reason, the filter's not converting the ammonia anymore. 100% water change will get rid of it, but the minute you put the fish in, they start producing ammonia again so you need to move some established filter media over to this tank. No need to clean everything thoroughly, the ammonia is in the water not on the sides of the tank and gravel. You're not being rude at all. I'd be 100X more stressed than you if this was happening to me!
Post what the ammonia level is after you do the 50% water change. That alone is going to make the fish feel a whole lot better. And get some established biofilter in your filter. What type of filter do you have?
Of course, the only reason I mentioned that is because if I ever did a 100% WC, I would just go ahead and clean everything while I had that chance....sparkle fresh!
