High Ammonia and Nitrates, Low Nitrites!

dani_starr

dani_starr

AC Members
Aug 6, 2011
661
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18
California
Real Name
Dani :)
I did a 40% water change on my 55 gallon aquarium about a week ago. Today, I noticed that the water seemed a bit cloudier than normal, thought maybe it was just the glass not being clean so I wiped it off, but no, still cloudy. Looked for dead fish, none, everyone looked healthy and happy. So I got my master freshwater API kit out, and tested the water, and I got christmas colors! The ammonia and nitrate were off the charts! The ammonia was .50ppm, the nitrate around 100ppm. Of course, I freaked out, and cleaned the tank. I took out my bio foam cartridges from the filter, and suctioned the water out, but made sure not to touch the wheels and kept the bio foam wet in the dirty tank water (so not to mess with my bacteria). I did a 75% water change, and retested.
Ammonia- .25ppm
Nitrate- 40ppm (I think the colors look so similar!)
Nitrite- 0ppm
pH- 7.0 (or possible 7.1/7.2ppm, hard to tell)

What do I do?! I know the ammonia should be 0ppm, do I do another water change? If so, how much? The fish are acting normal.

Thanks!
 
Keep doing water changes until things stabilize. Something like Prime will help with the ammonia for the time being.

Something is out of whack, though, to cause the params to shift that much.

Have you added anything recently? Any changes to your routine?
 
I use prime as my dechlor :)

I haven't changed anything, but 1 blue tetras and all my syno petricola died a couple weeks back. Even after taking out the dead bodies and testing the water, the ammonia was 0ppm and the nitrates 20ppm. I still did around a 35% water change though to be on the safe side. Everything else has been normal, I started feeding a couple frozen cubes of blood worms/shrimp as a bi weekly treat, but that's about it. I defrost them in a cup though before dumping them in.

So for water changes, do I more now (if so, how much?), or just do like 30% daily for the next few days and test the water before and after each time?
 
dani_starr said:
I use prime as my dechlor :)

I haven't changed anything, but 1 blue tetras and all my syno petricola died a couple weeks back. Even after taking out the dead bodies and testing the water, the ammonia was 0ppm and the nitrates 20ppm. I still did around a 35% water change though to be on the safe side. Everything else has been normal, I started feeding a couple frozen cubes of blood worms/shrimp as a bi weekly treat, but that's about it. I defrost them in a cup though before dumping them in.

So for water changes, do I more now (if so, how much?), or just do like 30% daily for the next few days and test the water before and after each time?
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I don't know how many fish you have, Dani, but that's a lot of bloodworms and since they're all protein, my guess is they're also the source of the ammonia. For treats, most fish love blanced zucchini or cucumbers as well, and they won't turn into ammonia (at least not enough to worry about).
 
Do you know why your fish died? Could that have any bearing on what's going on now? Any chance one of those that died got left in the tank or filter intake, etc?
 
What's the pH? If it goes too low ammonia starts to accumulate.
 
Jannika said:
I don't know how many fish you have, Dani, but that's a lot of bloodworms and since they're all protein, my guess is they're also the source of the ammonia. For treats, most fish love blanced zucchini or cucumbers as well, and they won't turn into ammonia (at least not enough to worry about).
Click to expand...

Well normally I only do the worms/shrimp once every other week, but then last week I did it twice that week, and the fish seemed happier. I have 1 blood parrot, 4 gouramis, 5 cherry barbs, 5 blue tetras, and 4 syno nigriventis, Anya seems to wolf down a whole cube herself, hence why I gave 2. I'll be sure to give some blanched cucumber/zuke instead from now on. That would make sense though.
 
mykidsmylife said:
Do you know why your fish died? Could that have any bearing on what's going on now? Any chance one of those that died got left in the tank or filter intake, etc?
Click to expand...

Nope, it was a freak thing. They were all acting normal, and they were just floating about, body intact, recent deaths. I wasn't sure if they were even dead at first, til they didn't move. They all died w/in 3 days, even after their deaths, the ammonia nor the nitrates spiked.
 
You will have a slight ammonia reading with prime. In my experience...0.25. With prime should not harm your fish. Your nitrates are high for some reason....I think your bb is just trying to keep up. Do you have a lot of decor?anything gunk maybe hiding under?
 
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