Vahida1

Its been 3 months since I had my tank.
it cycled.
normal readings for 2 weeks
then ammonia spike and cant get rid of it
did 50% water change
and other 50% water change
ammonia at 0 next day back at .50
can it be a problem with the aqeon power filter 10

I have rinsed the charcoal filter pack in aquaruim water and still to no avail.

should i change the cartgrige.
the manufactuerer say that beneficail bacteria is in boiholster.



readings
nitrates 20
nitrites 0
Ammonia .50
pH 6.5
GH0
KH0

please help with this?

dennis

DId you recently add any fish in the tank? Adding fish can also cause a spike on your ammonia levels since it needs to build more bacteria to process the increased load.

Lucy

Have you tested your tap water?
Carbon expires, so it may be releasing toxins back into your water. Can you just replace the carbon? Have you vacuumed the gravel? goldfish are big waste producers so it's important to keep up with that.

The good news is with your pH you have ammonium, not ammonia. It's not as harmful to your fish. Your test kit will read ammonium as ammonia.

Vahida1

yes i can replace the carbon filtered pad that inserted in hang on filter
next to bio-holster.

vaccum gravel and keep it very clean
i swear because i dont know where the spike is from.

all else is that filter. Unless i am doing something wrong?
please advise as to what may the issue be.

Vahida1

Lucy after i replace the cartrige and water change sould it keep my ammonia readings to 0 again.

Lucy

It should, but there's no guarantee. Change the water and test in 24hrs. See what the readings are, if necessary, do another water change.

Shawnie

what test kit do you use and as lucy asked, have you tested the water you are using to change out ?

agabr123

if your aquarium info is correct and you have a goldfish in your 10 gallon, that's probably the problem. goldfish are HUGE waste producers and the minimum tank size that's recommended is a 20 gallon for one and another 10 gallons for each additional goldie. your tank probably can't handle the continued increase in bio-load that your goldfish is producing.

Vahida1

thanx guys changed the filter yesterday. and did a 50% water change
doing a reading later around 4pm . and a small water change again. any other ideas until then.

Lucy

Did you change the whole cartidge or just the carbon? The foam on the cartridge also contains beneficial bacteria. Next time just change the carbon.
If you use Prime or Stress Coat+ as your water conditioner it'll detox the ammonia for 24hrs.

Once you get your cycle back, it'll be a good idea to increase the water changes to twice a week to keep the ammonia down. As Alex advised above, a goldie should be in about 20g's of water for the waste it produces.

Vahida1

Just changed the carbon filter.
and did daily 25% water changes.
Is there anything I can Insert in my filter with the carbon two double dose the carbon cleaning.
for example adding a smaller cartridge of carbon next to it or adding a sponge please advice
thanx for the help guys

Vahida1

Is there anything i can add to my aqueon filter in addition to the carbon inserts for more performance in clearing out ammonia dicharge.

as i am cycled but still cant get ammonia below the .25 mark reading. (using prime) and making about 2 20% water changes a week.

Lucy

Your threads have been merged since you're basically asking the same question.

You can add extra filter media or there's some sort of ceramic filter media you can buy to increase surface area that bacteria grows on, if that's what you're asking.

Being that you have ammonia, it means your tank isn't cycled. If it was, for some reason you're in a mini cycle. Perhaps because of the amount of waste the goldie produces.

I asked above......have you tested the new water you add to the tank?

IMO the only way to keep the ammonia in check is to have enough bacteria to consume it. However, with a big waste producer in not enough water the bacteria may have a hard time keeping up.

Vahida1

i am worried and dont know what to do.

Lucy

Only thing you really can do is daily water changes and continue Prime like you're doing until you get the cycle back. Once you do, you should be able to maintain it with water changes and vacuuming the gravel, possibly twice a week if needed until you're able to get a bigger tank.

I mentioned above, that with your pH your test is probably picking up ammonium, not ammonia. Ammonium is less harmful to fish.

MrWaxhead

You have lots of great info above, but you can also try some inexpensive fast growing plants like hornwort. If you throw some in your tank it will help keep your ammonia levels down.

lnhop

I'm a beginner so I don't have much advice, but I can sympathize with your problem. I have a 10 gallon with the exact same filter. I’ve been experiencing difficulty with an ammonia spike, too. Unfortunately, mine really is ammonia and not ammonium at my ph levels. I’ve been doing 50% water changes every 2-3 days and treating new water with Prime for about a week now. I also added a dose of Tetra SafeStart when first cycled and have been adding weekly doses of “Cycle” since then. As of today my readings were:

Ammonia 1-2
Nitrites .25
Nitrates 40

Yikes! So I did another water change with Prime. Two hours later the numbers were back down to ~ .25. Even though I checked the Ammonia on my tap water 3 months ago, I went ahead and followed Lucy’s suggest and tested it again. I couldn’t believe when it turned green! I tested it three times from two different faucets, all registering around 1. Luckily, my 75 gallon is still registering 0, so I have at least 1 working bio-filter. That also tells me it is not a problem with the test kit.

Not a whole lot I can do about the water supply other than dilute with distilled. I’m also thinking this type of filter with the biogrid just can’t support a large enough colony of bacteria. I’m going to replace it with a Rena SmartFilter if I can find one. I can use the established Bio-Chem stars from my canister filter to instantly start the biofilter on the 10g (I hope!). I’ll let you know if I see improvement with the new filter. Please let me know if you discover a trick for combating this problem.

Lucy

Unfortunatly, Cycle contains the wrong kind of bacteria. It's not self sustaining and dies off quickly. It competes with the beneficial bacteria your tank needs and has probably canceled about the TSS you used.
You will have to keep adding it to the tank or the cycle will crash.
I would suggest to stop using it now.