High ammonia levels in 6 year old tank

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Downrock

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Dec 24, 2002
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Surrey, B.C., Canada
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Hi, I've got a 75 gallon aquarium that is currently experiencing high ammonia levels after being set up for 6 years. Unfortunately my filter has gotten noisy lately as it is old and my dad tends to turn it off when hes watching TV and if I'm not around to turn it back on after, it can end up staying off for a long time. I think the bacteria population in the filter died at some point as I noticed the fish were mostly hiding and acting strange, and sure enough when i tested the ammonia levels they were reading 2.4ppm.


I've since fixed the filter so it isnt noisy and doesn't get turned off by my dad anymore, but I'm still dealing with the ammonia problem. I'm using ammo lock currently to keep the ammonia in a non toxic state while I figure out how to get the tank cycled again. Current inhabitants are 3 quarter sized angelfish, 6 cardinal tetras and 4 head and tail light tetras. PH is at 6.5 and KH and DH are less than 1(This is my natural tapwater parameters.) I've been doing large water changes daily which helps temporarily but the ammonia seems to respike to 2.4 by the next day.

Unfortunately one of the angelfish was damaged by the high ammonia levels and now lies on his side and can't swim and will not eat. He's been moved to a hospital tank with an established filter and the same water parameters minus the ammonia. Any chance of saving him? This happened with another of my angelfish a while back and unfortunately ammonia was probably the culprit that time as well and he did not pull through. I feel bad that I've been negligent with measuring ammonia levels in the past. Any advice on anything I can do for the main tank and the angel in the hospital tank? Should I up water changes more, reduce feeding further etc. Thanks.
 
Hopefully you can save the Angelfish. Keep the water super clean, cover the tank with a blanket/towel (less stressful) & lights off. You want your parameters 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite in the hospital tank at all times.

To get the main tank cycled again just do water changes whenever you have ammonia...anything above .25 ppm is potentially very damaging. Hopefull you havn't lost all your bacteria - are you showing nitrates increasing at all still ? If so, a couple of days should see you right.

Mind you, with ammonia increasing that quickly you may in fact be fully cycling again - do you have access to some filter media from a cycled tank ? This would help greatly.

Meantime, test ammonia at least twice a day, water change whenever its over .25 ppm.

Ammo-lock is a good idea as it leaves the ammonia in non-toxic form for your bateria colonies to work on. If you have Prime as your water conditioner it has the same effect.

Last question - do you trust your test kit ? you don't want to be relying on paper strips.

edit : reducing feeding is a good idea. obviously don't go changing your filter media during this period.
 
I do have access to 2 other filters from properly fuctioning tanks so I could cut a peice of the media out of one and put it in the 75. I don't have a test kit to measure nitrates so I'm not sure if they are rising. Nitrites are showing 0 whilst ammonia is 2.4 so I'm thinking it will need to fully cycle. Thanks for the advice guys.
 
Downrock said:
I do have access to 2 other filters from properly fuctioning tanks so I could cut a peice of the media out of one and put it in the 75. I don't have a test kit to measure nitrates so I'm not sure if they are rising. Nitrites are showing 0 whilst ammonia is 2.4 so I'm thinking it will need to fully cycle. Thanks for the advice guys.
Click to expand...

Excellent ! (re the other filters). Do this and you are very close to fixing the problem. Cut out a piece and put it in the cycling tank's filter, also squeeze out the filter sponges into the uncycled filter.

You need the nitrate kit, and one for nitrite (API liquid drop test kit = very good) or you are really just guessing as to e.g. when the tank is cycled.
 
I second squeezing the sponges out into the filter you are re-seeding.

you should see the bacteria build back up in 3-5 days.

also check the tank for anything dead..including plants.
 
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