How long is a mini-cycle?

That is really weird. I don't know why the levels would keep rising like that either. Are the fish still acting normally? Seems like at ammo levels that high, they would be in distress. Makes me think you're somehow getting false positives, though I don't know how. I'd keep up with the water changes and thorough gravel vacs, and stop using any chemicals other than Prime.

I'd probably do a huge water change and vac (75-90%, matching the temperature carefully when refilling) to start with, and see if that brings down your readings.

Good luck....
 
Well, I did a 50% change, which did seem to bring the ammonia down to 4, so I turned around and did another 25% change, followed by yet another 40% change, resulting finally in an ammonia level between 1 and 2. The fish seem clueless--no weird behavior. I am sure that the one thing saving them is the Ammo Lock. It binds the ammonia and makes it non-toxic, though it will still be detected by ammonia tests. According to the bottle the bacteria will eventually eat the extra ammonia, so it should not be detectable after a few days, and it should not harm the fish in the meantime. Since the tank filter is now running with what is, as far as I know, a good media filter from my other tank, I am waiting to see if things have calmed down at all by the morning. I was just relieved to see that the water changes _did_ make a measurable difference in water quality. I plan to skip feeding tomorrow and keep testing. We'll see how it goes.... Thanks for the help.
 
Ammonia is back up to at least 4 this morning. Fish are still acting fine, thanks I guess to Ammo Lock. I never mentioned, I do have an under the gravel filter running on the bottom of the 20g, in addition to the HOB. It doesn't cover the entire bottom, because its meant for a 10g. I used it when setting up the 20g several months ago to utilize the bacteria on it. I've read stories online about these things malfunctioning and releasing toxins in the water. Could this be a problem? Or are these high ammonia levels normal for the kind of cycling that may follow the use of meds? Also, when using Rid-Ich+ I did daily 25% changes and vacuumed the grabel pretty aggressively. I read online that this might actually hurt the bacteria colonies. Is that true? In any case, I'm changing 60% of the water at the moment, then test again.
 
ammo lock just binds the NH3 I believe converting it to a less toxic NH4.

the test kits normally test total ammonia so you could see a high 'ammonia/ammonium' reading and the fish act fairly normal.

at issue is determining how much NH3(ammonia) you actually have in the tank.

water changes are your friend and will not impede the cycling process.
 
Thanks--that's very reassuring, as I was wondering if I was doing more harm than good with the frequent and massive water changes. But I'll keep at it. Ammonia is down to between 1 and 2 after the 60% change, and I may change some more water before leaving the house this morning. I'd like to see it below 1 before I go. Hopefully the good bacteria on the filter pad from my other tank will kick in soon (?!!)
 
actually trying to keep the ammonia low is good in 2 ways. 1. better for the inhabitants.
2 if ammonia gets to high it can actually kill the bacteria.
 
Well, my ammonia shot up from 1 to at least 4 or 5, over the course of less than 6 hours. I didn't feed the fish today, and I don't see how 5 small fish could produce that much ammonia. But something in that tank is producing ammonia. My husband thinks that the under-the-gravel filter has trapped toxic gas and is now releasing it. We've read about this online, but I don't want to take out that gravel filter at this point and risk losing even more bacteria. We just did a 90% water change, leaving the ammonia at .25. We also moved the 70 filter that we were running on the 10g to the problematic 20g. The 70 has only been up and running for about 8 days, but maybe it will contribute at least a little bio filtering. Any ideas about the gravel filter issue? Or what heck is causing all this ammonia?
 
After a 90% water change I left my house for 5 hours. The ammonia was .25 when I left and over 4 again when I returned. I mean, is this possible? Five small fish. No food for 2 days. Nothing has been happening in that tank except for the removal of water. Ammonia doesn't just come from nowhere, does it?
 
any plants? dead or dying plants will create ammonia too..also the substrate ..are you vac'ing the substrate?
any snails? or other critters?
 
I do vac the gravel. I have some java fern, but it all seems to be healthy. No snails that I know of. There used to be some copepods, or other tiny shrimpy things living in my gravel, and the Rid-Ich+ seems to have wiped them out (the bottle says that it will kill invertebrates), so maybe they are decaying? But wouldn't gravel vacuuming remove them? Unless maybe there are tons of them dead trapped under my under-gravel filter. Do you think I should try to take it out?
 
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