Help Ammonia Spike!!!!!!!

I have a 55 gallon tank with hob Aquatech 30-60 filtration system with both sponge and disposable. I sat up my tank 3 weeks prior to adding fish. I added tetra cleaning bacteria when setting up my new tank. I used decorations i had in a previous tank. I have 4 bubble stones and a bubble chest. I am using API freshwater master test kit. I have 2 plecos and 4 Fancy goldfish. I tested my water yesterday and ph was 7.4, ammonia was 8.0, nitrate and nitrite were both 0. I did a 50% water change and added more of the tetra cleaning bacteria. I checked it again today and got the same exact readings. I did another 50% water change. I am feeding twice a day alternating between tetra goldfish flakes and fluval bug bites. I haven't changed my disposable filter cartridges. Any advice as to why I am having this problem and how can I fix this?

 

Did you just recently add the fish? To me it sounds like the tank has not completed the nitrogen cycle. To go through a fish-in-cycle you’ll have to monitor your parameters closely and preform large water changes when needed; the goal is to keep the ammonia and nitrite as low as possible while the bacteria has a chance to grow and the tank can establish. The end result should be readings of 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and a presence of nitrate. I believe Prime can temporaily detoxify ammonia so that might be something to look into buying as well. All the fish you added have pretty high bioloads as well, meaning you’ll likely have to preform large water changes almost daily until the tank establishes.

How many times did you dose with Tetra Bacteria Cleaner while setting up the tank? (Meaning did you use it just once or for several days)

 

Did you just recently add the fish? To me it sounds like the tank has not completed the nitrogen cycle. To go through a fish-in-cycle you’ll have to monitor your parameters closely and preform large water changes when needed; the goal is to keep the ammonia and nitrite as low as possible while the bacteria has a chance to grow and the tank can establish. The end result should be readings of 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and a presence of nitrate. I believe Prime can temporaily detoxify ammonia so that might be something to look into buying as well. All the fish you added have pretty high bioloads as well, meaning you’ll likely have to preform large water changes almost daily until the tank establishes.

How many times did you dose with Tetra Bacteria Cleaner while setting up the tank? (Meaning did you use it just once or for several days)

I dosed 3 times during setup enough for a 60 to 70 gallon tank. Yesterday when I did my water change I dosed enough for a 60 gallon tank and today I dosed enough for 88 gallons.

 

Did you dose ammonia in the three weeks before adding fish? Either with fish food or pure ammonia?

 

A tank won't cycle by adding bacteria it has to have an ammonia source so your tank colonizes 2 types of bacteria. 1 that takes care of ammonia and a different one to take care of nitrites.

 

You are having this problem because you did not cycle your tank. As others have said, if you did not feed the bacteria by adding ammonia, those 3 weeks did nothing. You are now doing a fish-in cycle, which is much more work, especially since all of you fish a large waste producers. Your fish are now providing the ammonia via their waste and resperation, but you do not have bacterial colonies builtup to handle that waste, so it's accumulating and you need to keep it at safe levels while the bacteria can catch up.

You want to perform large 50-70% waterchanges as needed to keep the ammomnia below 0.5ppm. So, for example, if ammonia is at 8ppm a 50% WC brings it down to 4ppm. Do another WC later same day to get it to 2ppm. Next day repeat...After you get the Ammonia down to 0.5 continue to test and do WCs to maintain that level.

Tha bacteria will eventually process the ammonia into nitites. Both ammonia and nitrite are poisonous to your fish, so the nitrite needs to managed as well. Once nitrite starts to appear try to keep the combined total of nitrite and Ammonia below 1ppm. Eventually the ammonia will test at zero because the bacteria that convert it have built up enough of a colony to handle the ammonia your fish are producing, but you will probably still have nitrites. Just continue until they test zero as well, but keep them at 0.5ppm until then. The bacteria that processes nitrite will convert it to nitrate, which is much less poisonous and is kept under control with water changes.

Once your tank is cycled ammonia and nitrite will test zero. Keeping nitrates under 20ppm can be done with weekly water changes.

A fish-in cycling can take several weeks, but with the bottled bacteria you may do better than that. The bottled bacteria are a hit-or-miss proposition. Sometimes they work and often they do not, so rely on your tests to tell you how your tank is doing.

Try decreasing the feeding during this time as well.

You should not change any filter material and do not clean it while cycling your tank. Disposable filter pads are only for making the fish store money. I've never disposed of a filter pad. I have 12 year old foam in some of my filters. It does not go bad, and when you throw it away you are trowing away the bacteria you worked so hard to establish. Just rinse them in tank water every so often. It will depend on the tank and the type of filter, but I clean mine every 3-4 months.