Ammonia!!!

Help!!
Cycled tank and it finished around a month ago.

we were showing 0 ammonia 0 nitrites and 5ppm nitrates

we are now testing at 0.25 ammonia and 5ppm nitrates no nitrites.

im confused to what can be causing the slight spike in ammonia as I’m positive I’m not over feeding the fish. I do my 25% water change weekly, clean filters once a month using the old tank water.

I have a 200litre tank
Stock:
1 Betta
6 Guppy’s
4 Corydoras
6 X-ray Tetras
6 Platys
1 Bristlenose Catfish (still young)

can anyone help please

 

Well, the tank is in no way over crowded as thats a 52 gallon tank. What is your feeding schedule like ? Do you feed 2 - 3 times a day ? Do they eat all the flakes or pellet in about 20 mins ?

 

That's very strange. I believe that a cycled tank shouldn't be showing signs of ammonia. Maybe do a WC then test again?

 

I’m still feeding them once a day at the moment as have been scared to increase it as had issues trying to since the tank since Jan

So once it was cycled didn’t want to mess anything up.

Flakes are gone within a few minutes
Catfish Pellets are gone within 10 mins
I put one algae wafer in that’s there for about half an hour.
Pleco gets either a slice of zucchini or a Spinach leave every two days. I normally feed him at night and take the leftovers out the following day
I have been having issues with what I thought was brown algae but from searching up about it I think it could be diatoms? Not sure if that could be causing the issue

 

pH in the tank?

 

I’m still feeding them once a day at the moment as have been scared to increase it as had issues trying to since the tank since Jan

So once it was cycled didn’t want to mess anything up.

Flakes are gone within a few minutes
Catfish Pellets are gone within 10 mins
I put one algae wafer in that’s there for about half an hour.
Pleco gets either a slice of zucchini or a Spinach leave every two days. I normally feed him at night and take the leftovers out the following day
I have been having issues with what I thought was brown algae but from searching up about it I think it could be diatoms? Not sure if that could be causing the issue

I have a 29 gallon tank an picked up some shrimp an a snail to help with clean up on the substrate. I dont know if you have sand or gravel but some shrimp will def help if the fish dont eat absolutely everything. Same with snails.

It dosnt seem like your over feeding. What are you current readings for your tank ?

 

It's my understanding that 0.25 ppm ammonia is within the margin of error. As long as it doesn't get any higher I wouldn't worry about it too much.

 

I have a 29 gallon tank an picked up some shrimp an a snail to help with clean up on the substrate. I dont know if you have sand or gravel but some shrimp will def help if the fish dont eat absolutely everything. Same with snails.

It dosnt seem like your over feeding. What are you current readings for your tank ?

ahh might have a look at some shrimp, not keen on the idea of having snails.

I have gravel in the tank at the moment

tonight’s reading is:
0.25ppm Ammonia
0 Nitrites
5ppm Nitrates
7.2 PH

pH in the tank?

7.2 on tonight’s readings

It's my understanding that 0.25 ppm ammonia is within the margin of error. As long as it doesn't get any higher I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Ah right, so I don’t have much to worry about

 

ahh might have a look at some shrimp, not keen on the idea of having snails.

I have gravel in the tank at the moment

tonight’s reading is:
0.25ppm Ammonia
0 Nitrites
5ppm Nitrates
7.2 PH

7.2 on tonight’s readings

Ah right, so I don’t have much to worry about

Any chance it could be the tap water your using, mine has about 0.1 ppm Ammonia, i normally throw in some prime after that. Also The snail i recommend is a Black Devil Spike Snail. They are awesome an its hard for them to reproduce in your tank.

 

Ahh they’re quite cool actually, will need to have a look. Looking online they are only coming up in America will need to see if I can try source some in the UK

I will test the tap water tomorrow and see what it comes out at. Thank you for your help