Help a newbie out please! Ammonia problems.

Hi guys!

Okay, before you come at me - I have since learned my lesson.

We wanted to get our three year old some fish for her birthday. Being impulsive, we just went to our local Meijer (kind of like a walmart) and bought all the stuff she would need, including the fish. We followed the instructions that the sales person gave us. (We now know those instructions were completely wrong.)

We had four small fish in a 3 gallon tank. Within ONE day, all four were gone. We decided we clearly did something wrong and went to our local Aquarium store. They tried to help by telling us all the things we needed to do to fix it. We have done water changes, changed the rocks at the bottom to sand, removed the cheap plastic decorations and replaced them with actual rocks and some live plants, cleaned the filter, added some media they gave us to help with bacteria and so on. We have since been at this for over 3 weeks now and we cannot get the ammonia to go down. They keep telling us to just wait, but the numbers are not going down, no matter how many water changes we do. It is sitting at a solid 2ppm and very lime green when we test.

I'm scared that we will continue to wait and wait but it won't work, then we will be at square one. Do we buy a whole new tank and start over? Do we just continue to wait? Water changes? They have us putting in a conditioner each time we change the water, but that's it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

Welcome to Fishlore!

Have tested your tap water for ammonia? If you are not adding it that is probably where it is coming from.

3 weeks is totally normal. Have you gotten any nitrites yet? Fishless cycles take awhile. You fish store is correct on the patient part. It usually takes roughly 4-6 weeks for most.

 

Are there fish in the tank currently? If so they are probably contributing ammonia faster than your filter bacteria can handle. Also it’s not safe for the fish to be in there with any level over some very small amounts.
You can tell if your bacteria is building up by measuring the nitrite, and the nitrate levels. There are bacteria which turn ammonia to nitrite, and also bacteria that turn the nitrite into nitrates. Both ammonia and nitrite are toxic to fish, nitrates are ok in small levels. If you measure any nitrites, you’ll know the first bacteria is beginning to take hold. Once you start measuring nitrates, you’ll know the second “nitrifying bacteria” are taking hold.
if you don’t have fish in there, 2ppm ammonia is actually ok, as long as it isn’t going up the cycling is probably going ok. It can take upwards of a month to complete the cycle, though. Couple last questions. Are you adding anything like fish food or something to raise ammonia levels? What kind of filter do you have?

Don’t worry, everyone was a beginner at some point! It’s great you’re trying to do the cycling process the right way!

 

Oh my, you guys are so kind! I was worried I would get heat for not knowing what the heck I'm doing!

To answer all of your questions -

I do not currently have any fish in there - we wanted to wait until it was safe because it broke my heart to lose FOUR!
I did test the tap water and it was perfect, so not adding any thankfully.
I use the little test strips and the Nitrate is slowly going up but so is the nitrite. The ammonia has been pretty level at 2ppm and not really fluctuating.
I haven't added any fish food with no fish, just trying to flush everything out.
We've been rinsing the filter in old water when we do the water changes, but the tank is starting to smell...yucky. I don't know if that's normal or not of course.
The filter is what came with the tank, it just says tetra whisper. Would switching that out maybe help?

In your opinion should I continue with water changes or just let it sit and do its job for a week or so?

Thank you again, I'm so excited to do this the right way, I'm just more impatient than my three year old! lol

 

Oh my, you guys are so kind! I was worried I would get heat for not knowing what the heck I'm doing!

To answer all of your questions -

I do not currently have any fish in there - we wanted to wait until it was safe because it broke my heart to lose FOUR!
I did test the tap water and it was perfect, so not adding any thankfully.
I use the little test strips and the Nitrate is slowly going up but so is the nitrite. The ammonia has been pretty level at 2ppm and not really fluctuating.
I haven't added any fish food with no fish, just trying to flush everything out.
We've been rinsing the filter in old water when we do the water changes, but the tank is starting to smell...yucky. I don't know if that's normal or not of course.
The filter is what came with the tank, it just says tetra whisper. Would switching that out maybe help?

In your opinion should I continue with water changes or just let it sit and do its job for a week or so?

Thank you again, I'm so excited to do this the right way, I'm just more impatient than my three year old! lol

It sounds like it is cycling! I’m not an expert, but as long as you have ammonia at 2ppm, I would sit back for a week or so without doing water changes and see what happens. If you change the water too often, you may be limiting the amount of nitrite for those other bacteria to grow off of and turn into nitrates. At some point, the ammonia should go down since you don’t have any fish and aren’t adding anything to the tank. If ammonia continues to rise, then do your water change.

 

Oh my, you guys are so kind! I was worried I would get heat for not knowing what the heck I'm doing! . . .

There's not much danger of that. I expect most of our members started out much the same way. I know I did.

 

Oh my, you guys are so kind! I was worried I would get heat for not knowing what the heck I'm doing!

To answer all of your questions -

I do not currently have any fish in there - we wanted to wait until it was safe because it broke my heart to lose FOUR!
I did test the tap water and it was perfect, so not adding any thankfully.
I use the little test strips and the Nitrate is slowly going up but so is the nitrite. The ammonia has been pretty level at 2ppm and not really fluctuating.
I haven't added any fish food with no fish, just trying to flush everything out.
We've been rinsing the filter in old water when we do the water changes, but the tank is starting to smell...yucky. I don't know if that's normal or not of course.
The filter is what came with the tank, it just says tetra whisper. Would switching that out maybe help?

In your opinion should I continue with water changes or just let it sit and do its job for a week or so?

Thank you again, I'm so excited to do this the right way, I'm just more impatient than my three year old! lol

No don't switch the filter out unless it is getting really clogged.

I am curious where your ammonia is coming from. Are you adding liquid ammonia?

 

Thank you all for your replies! After another week, my ammonia is DOWN! WOOHOO! Now the nitrites are through the roof, is this normal in the process? If so, is there anything I need to be doing or just continue to wait. The nitrates are getting higher but the nitrites are the brightest pink I've seen yet on the test strip.

 

Thank you all for your replies! After another week, my ammonia is DOWN! WOOHOO! Now the nitrites are through the roof, is this normal in the process? If so, is there anything I need to be doing or just continue to wait. The nitrates are getting higher but the nitrites are the brightest pink I've seen yet on the test strip.

Is this still in your original 3 gallon tank, or did you get a larger one?

I am curious where your ammonia is coming from. Are you adding liquid ammonia?

Good question. Maybe from the 4 original fish that died?

 

Thank you all for your replies! After another week, my ammonia is DOWN! WOOHOO! Now the nitrites are through the roof, is this normal in the process? If so, is there anything I need to be doing or just continue to wait. The nitrates are getting higher but the nitrites are the brightest pink I've seen yet on the test strip.

Yes, it’s normal. You have gone though the first stage of cycling and now you are going through the second. You just need to wait for the bacteria to convert nitrite into nitrate to grow. Looks like there some of the bacteria converting the nitrite into nitrate already!
I may be wrong so don’t take my answer as a definite one.
PS what are you planning to stock in that tank?

 

If you can, next time you have matured the aquatic ecology first, and then go to buy fish. In the newly established fish tank, it is difficult to quickly cultivate nitrifying bacteria. At this time, if you add too many fish, it will cause ecological load. In fact, your dead fish help to build the ecology of the fish tank! Because they rot are food for nitrifying bacteria. If you change the water a lot at this time, it will cause the water body to fluctuate. NO2-NO3-PO4 You have to understand this cycle. Of course, PO4 cannot be recycled, and its concentration can only be reduced by changing the water. If you are interested, go to the coral reef forum, there should be a lot of information about ecological cycles, one of which is called the Berlin system, which is to throw dead fish into the fish tank, let the bacteria eat it, and cultivate beneficial Bacteria are in every corner of your fish tank, and after 15 days, the ecology of the fish tank will be successfully established, and the NO3 value will be very low, it is so magical.
I forgot to tell you that freshwater aquaculture needs to pay attention to the volume of the filter material, and the beneficial bacteria need a place to live and reproduce, which is why many people need to build a strong filter system for fish farming. I'm a foreigner and I'm using translation software, so I don't know if the translation is accurate.