srnoncom

I have had my 55 gal tank for approx 1 1/2 yrs. My fish WERE two balas, two needle nose, an algae eater and two gouramis. Everything was fine until I moved! In preparing for the move, I saved almost all of the water, kept the fish items in same water and left water over the rocks. (Definitely made moving it hard). The fish all died slowly, in what appears to be ammonia poisoning as that was the major issue. My Nitrites at the peak was .50 PPM

Since moving, now about five months, I have lost ALL except for one bala! In an attempt to save the fish I had moved them into a 20 gal (I know not optimal for the bala (now 5 inch long), but at least he's living! Again, only the one survived.

I thought that I should allow the tank to recycle, and have left it without fish for two months or so. I just checked the water and my nitrate and Nitrites are 0 ppm, but my Ammonia is now 8.0 ppm, which is the highest it has ever been!

What can I do to get my tank back up to speed?

Thank you much!

Brett

Butterfly

What are you feeding your tank to recycle it? If it doesn't have any fish in it you have to feed it fish food or pure ammonia. The bacteria will starve without a food source.
Carol

Tony G.

Welcome to fishlore!
echoing carol here, you need to keep the bacteria alive by "feeding" it with sources of ammonia. Adding flake food, will go to the bottom, and decpompose, causing the ammonia to spike. I see that your ammonia is very high, so to lower it you need to do constant waterchanges to get the nitrites going to be later turned into nitrates. You could also use some established gravel(from the 20gal)and place it in a cloth(clean, never used before) to get an instant cycle. Once your tank is cycled i recocmend you put your bala in there in the meantime while you save up for a bigger tank for the guy since he needs at least 90 gallons.
Best of Luck with your cycle
tony

aquarist48

Welcome to Fish Lore! Great information above. With your ammonia reading of 8.0 I would consider doing a 50% water change. With it being that high it may take a "long" time to cycle.
If you can give us some more details as to how you are cycling, it will really help others to help you more.
Best of luck. Sorry to hear about your losses.
Ken

bolivianbaby

Welcome to Fishlore

Great advice above and please keep us posted on the progress of your cycle.