Ammonia Suddenly At 1.0

Hello!

I cycled a 20 gallon tall using TSS a bit over a month ago and have been testing ammonia/nitrites/nitrates regularly. I've been either 0 or .25 (which I've read could actually be 0 based on the range of the API test kit) ammonia with 0 nitrite and 5-15 nitrate depending on when my last water change occurred.

This morning I tested and suddenly get 1.0 ppm ammonia. I tested a second time and again 1.0. It's possible its between .5-1.0, but definitely a darker shade than it has been. I immediately did a 25% water change vacuuming all the gravel to grab any leftover food, but now want to see if I can figure out what may be causing the problem.

Monday I switched to NLS Thera +A food, and have been struggling a bit to decide how much to feed. There have been a couple pellets left over in the tank. Could this food that's leftover be causing the excess ammonia? It's not a ton of food, but I guess if it is really nutrient dense?

 

I find TSS is great for nitrite spikes (it works overnight for me) but less reliable for ammonia.
1.0 is nothing to panic about unless your pH is very high.
I feed ... a lot and don't get ammonia spikes. I feel that they are caused more by filter failure, substrate disturbance (for instance when I added an extra layer, thereby smothering the BB on the surface), a dead fish, or overstocking. Even with overstocking the filter will catch up unless the stocking is particularly egregious.
I would simply keep up with the water changes and add prime. Prime can give a false-positive ammonia reading though.
Observe your fish for signs of distress.

 

Our ph out of the well is 7.8, so that worries me some with the 1.0 ammonia. I will get some Prime today to treat with it the reading is still high after work.

We are fully stocked, but I don’t think crazy.has it at 77%.

What would be the cause/cure of filter failure? The HOB filter doesn’t appear to be running any different.

 

We are fully stocked, but I don’t think crazy.has it at 77%.

How did you stock your tank.
If you increased the bio load (i.e. the amount of fish producing ammonia) in a very short period of time, then your bacteria colony will take a week or so to grow and adapt.

Keep in mind that the volume of the bacteria colony is proportional to the amount of bioload you actually have producing ammonia. You could compare it with the instant reading of fuel consumption in a car - goes radically up when you put your foot down, but your average fuel usage changes gradually

Don't do a water change. Allow your bacteria colony to react to the additional bioload and to grow. This will resolve the problem long term

 

I basically stocked in 3 stages with 6-10 days between each stage.

 

I basically stocked in 3 stages with 6-10 days between each stage.

So there you go..... don't do water changes until your ammonia gets up to 2,5-3........ The bacteria colony in your filter after cycling need the excess ammonia to feed on and grow. You should be ok!

 

Something does need to be done with your ammonia if it's near 1.0 ppm it's dangerous if you pH is 7.8 as that's right at the threshold.

 

Would you still treat with prime to help the fish out while this happens? Or does Prime mess with that?

 

I don't use Prime so I couldn't tell you if that would stop the nitrification bacteria from increasing in colony size. Hopefully someone else knows about that. I would just do a 25% water change as you already did guaranteeing you drop ammonia to .5ppm or .75ppm max and then measure daily.

Also I'd do a PH test on the tank [before any future water changes] to make sure PH is above 6. If you dropped below 6 this would be the root cause of your problem.

 

I will get some today to treat with it the reading is still high after work.

Prime amongst other things changes ammonia to ammonium (less toxic for the fish) for about 48hrs.
Your API test kit actually gives you a result for the sum of ammonia and ammonium..... so your reading will not go down per say when you test after using prime.

On the subject of feeding, if your fish eat all the food that you feed them with aprox. 60 seconds, then you are not overfeeding. If they are not, then either cut back on the amount of food or the number of feedings you do.

 

I had read that was how Prime works, does that change effect how the beneficial bacteria consumes the ammonia and reproduces?

I never had any leftover flake food, but I have only done two feedings with the new pellets and am trying to figure out how much they can eat in a minute or so. I also thought that a couple pellets on bottom might help the guys on bottom get fed, but a bunch of the other fish just came down and picked through the substrate. I will skip feeding for a day, then start with half the amount tomorrow and slowly increase if it until that minute mark.

 

Jmm57 f you have bottom feeders and top feeders like I do, then first give a couple of floating flakes to distract the top feeders and then give a pinch of bottom feeder pellets - works for me, so that all the fish get there fair share

 

Gonna call that .5? I bought Prime but I’ll hold off until my test in the morning I think. If it’s up near 1 again I will treat? My water changes I will just siphon off the top instead of vacuuming the gravel.

I also bought Stability and since it looks like there are no drawbacks to that product I started with that.

 

I had read that was how works, does that change effect how the consumes the and reproduces?

Not really. You just have a fish safer environment for 48 hrs. Keep in mind that the chemical put into PRIME to convert the ammonia to ammonium is there to buffer the ammonia, so that the oxidising bacteria have a change to work on the ammonia. Within 48 hrs the ammonium starts turning back into ammonia and the filter can cope with it.

Is your filter flow good and steady? Have you rinsed the biomedia in TANK WATER recently to remove the mechanical scum that may be inhibiting water flow?

 

I changed the filter cartridge maybe a week ago because despite swishing it around in my old tank water during water change, the filter kept reading that it needed to be changed. I have the new cartridge in place, but the original is still in body of the filter in the water that gets sucked in before it gets to the new cartridge to kind of “seed” the new one. Flow appears to be fine to me.

 

I have the new cartridge in place, but the original is still in body of the filter in the water that gets sucked in before it gets to the new cartridge to kind of “seed” the new one. Flow appears to be fine to me.

Sounds good! I am sure however that the flow is lower having two cartridges - btw what type of HOB do you have {make and model}. Are you sure you have the filter size right for the tank and bioload?

 

AqAdvisor has me right near 100% for filtration, it might be 97%? My tank is the TopFin 20 starter kit so it has their silent flow or whatever it’s called filter. I got the entire set on sale for like $65. I haven’t seen great things about the filter in the set, but I didn’t plan on upgrading it until this one failed and until yesterday my levels were all .25 or lower (I didn’t test for like a week after TSS based on some other threads I found). Since it’s been a week, I feel like I should probably be ok to remove the original filter?


Ammonia still holding at .5 this morning. I am thinking about a small dose of prime for relief this morning and then day two of stability after work.

 

Strange that your ammonia has not gone down. Seems as if the bio colony is not copping ....
Apart from the cartridge in your filter, do you also have foam / sponge for the biostage of filtering. The replaceable cartridge sounds more like a mechanical filter (with maybe carbon in it) to trap dirt. there should be a sponge / foam filter after the filter cartridge. Is that what you have?

 

It’s pretty much just an intake, passes through a white filter with carbon in it and then through a blue plastic piece with holes on it

I don’t see anything spongy

 

There should be a sponge at the bottom of the filter held in by the blue part.

If I were you, I would put a layer of sponge in the place you have mounted the new filter cartridge. This will be your additional biomedia for the bacteria. You can then use the cartridge just as a mechanical filter to remove muck. The carbon isn't necessary unless you are trying to remove something specific from the water.

 

Stopped at PetSmart on the way home and based on what they had I got this:
And put it in place between the white filter and blue plastic.

Also grabbed:

And put that in the opening before the white filter part. Water flow still looks good.

Any recommendations if I wanted to upgrade filter? Aqua clear 30 or 50? Fluval c2/3? It's gonna be a pain to switch because the way the hood is setup I don't think I can run two filters while the new media seeds. Maybe this Biomix thing I added could help.

 

It’s pretty much just an intake, passes through a white filter with carbon in it and then through a blue plastic piece with holes on it

I don’t see anything spongy

I'm guessing this is a top fin filter because it looks like mine. Bad news, it's not the best quality. Good news, it can be easily and cheaply modified to match up with pricier filters.

I modified mine with a fluval sponge and 2 packs of fluval biomax. I cut the sponge to the height of my filter and placed two pieces right next to my water intake in the filter's open area to catch all the big stuff. Then I slipped the two biomax nets between the sponge and the carbon filter it came with. (2 fits in my 20 easy but were a bit of a tight squeeze in my 10). This greatly increases the size of the colony of bb you can grow in you filter and cuts down on the debris getting caught in your carbon filter that decays and raises your nitrates.

Also, it makes cleaning the filter without harming your bacteria easier. I just clean one piece of the 4 pieces of fluval media every week by swishing it in my used tank water while leaving the other 3 in place so my colony stays strong.

I set up my 5 gallon filter pretty much the same way (only 1 layer of sponge and 1 biomax pack) and my water quality has been perfect all week with a male black molly in there.

 

I'm guessing this is a top fin filter because it looks like mine. Bad news, it's not the best quality. Good news, it can be easily and cheaply modified to match up with pricier filters.

I modified mine with a fluval sponge and 2 packs of fluval biomax. I cut the sponge to the height of my filter and placed two pieces right next to my water intake in the filter's open area to catch all the big stuff. Then I slipped the two biomax nets between the sponge and the carbon filter it came with. (2 fits in my 20 easy but were a bit of a tight squeeze in my 10). This greatly increases the size of the colony of bb you can grow in you filter and cuts down on the debris getting caught in your carbon filter that decays and raises your nitrates.

Also, it makes cleaning the filter without harming your bacteria easier. I just clean one piece of the 4 pieces of fluval media every week by swishing it in my used tank water while leaving the other 3 in place so my colony stays strong.

I set up my 5 gallon filter pretty much the same way (only 1 layer of sponge and 1 biomax pack) and my water quality has been perfect all week with a male black molly in there.

Looks like we were thinking along the same lines! I added Biomax yesterday, I put a thin spongy thing between my carbon and the blue plastic piece though.

 

Looks like we were thinking along the same lines! I added Biomax yesterday, I put a thin spongy thing between my carbon and the blue plastic piece though.

That will definitely up your bb colony

I recommended the sponge between the intake and the biomax because my tank's planted and my filter would always suck up fairly large pieces of plants and debris that got caught in my biomax nets so I had to pull them out and wash them more often. That probably wasn't hurting them but it worried me so I changed it up.