firbyster

Hello,

I need help! I've had my tank for about 8 months now, and had 4 healthy guppies up until a couple of weeks ago. After my first fish died, I discovered my ammonia levels to be quite high (around 2mg/l). Everything else tested normal. I started doing daily water changes (using Stress Coat) and reduced feeding, which helped only for a short time only to have it spike again after a day. Slowly I ended up losing each one of my fish After my last fish died, I noticed the 3 live plants I had were dying, so I removed the dead leaves, but eventually all of the plants died....

I should note that the day before my first fish died, I had done a 30% water change, and also the week previous to that, my female birthed about 6 fry (non of which made it).

I am now trying to stabilize the water again (to one day soon start over with more fish). I have kept the filter running the entire time and have vacuumed the gravel. Also I replaced the carbon in my filter. Still, every day the ammonia levels are way too high, higher than ever now at 8mg/l. I am kind of at a loss now as to what could possibly be causing this....

If anyone has any ideas, or insight into what could possibly be causing this I'd love to hear it as I have tried everything I could think of!

Thank you,
firbyster

Lucy

Welcome to Fish Lore

I'm really sorry about your guppies. It's hard to say why your ammonia spiked.
Was your tank cycled? Did you cycle with or without fish?
What was your water change routine?
Are there any fish in the tank now?
Your water parameters in your aquarium info, is that as of today? Any nitrate reading?

Sorry for all the questions

firbyster

Hi Lucy,

Thank you for the quick response!
To answer your questions, I cycled my tank initially without any fish (added my fish a month after starting). I've had my guppies in the tank for about 7 months without a problem until now.
My water change routine was usually weekly small changes. I sometimes would go two weeks and do larger ones.
There aren't any fish in the tank now, and I wouldn't dare until I get this sorted out.
As for nitrate reading it is low, it seems to be between about 2.5mg/l.

Thank you for your help!

Lucy

Your welcome, but I wasn't much help.

Looks like you were going along well, then poof, ammonia spike?
Water change routine looks good, cycled without fish.

Were you changing the carbon out regularly? Vacuuming the gravel? Over feeding and fish waste can cause an ammonia spike.

The only advice I can give now is get through the cycle again without fish and try again.

Sorry I can't be more help, perhaps someone else will have some ideas.

AlyeskaGirl

I am so sorry you lost your guppies after having them for so long.

I was reading your aquarium info and you had ammonia 8ppm and nitrite .25correct?....tank went into a mini-cycle for some reason. Did you do anything different toward your tank maint? Maybe clean too well....including filter and changing out filter media perhaps?

And Welcome to FishLore!

firbyster

Thanks again for the replies and sympathies. It was quite upsetting to lose all of them. I just want to make sure I understand what happened to avoid this from happening again.

I think both of you have hit on the issues... I never vacuumed the rocks (until now when I realized that could have been part of the problem). Also I never changed the carbon until now.... It is quite unfortunate that I didn't realize sooner that could have caused the problem.

Now as Christine mentions my tank seems to be going through a mini cycle. I think now that I've vacuumed and changed the carbon, I will have to wait for it to cycle.

I will test again tonight to see if there is any change. How soon now should I start to see the ammonia levels drop, should I continue doing water changes or is that irrelevant without any fish in the tank?

Also once I do get my tank back in order, how often should I be vacuuming without affecting the balance of the tank?

Thanks again for all your help!