High ammonia spike after setting up new tank, is it normal?

HI last week I put up my new 29 gallon tank with 19 gallon of clean water and 10 gallon of water from my old and cycled tank(at that moment it only had a week since water the last change) so I could help cycle the tank faster plus I had both old and new filters together in the same container over 2 days. Now when I went to test the water I was completely shocked to see that the ammonia is at 4.0 ppm, the nitrate is at 0.25ppm, and the nitrite is at 0.50ppm shouldn't they already be dead by now if the ammonia was that high? They are acting pretty normal I see no redflags like loss of appetite, scratching or anything. Now during sometime(a month) I had 7 guppies and a kuhlI in the 10 gallon just waiting for me to setup the new one now in the tank I have 12 guppies and a kuhli, my new 29 is equipped with a sand substrate, live plants and slate.

I'm going to try a water change and see if that fixes it. But I still post because well it's a very high amount of ammonia in the tank and shouldn't they be dead already? or at least showing signs of distress? Here are the test tubes

Edit: This is after changing 6 gallons. Oh I just read the cycle of nitrogen in case if I missed something and it seems that "will break down into either ionized ammonium (NH4) or un-ionized ammonia (NH3). Ammonium is not harmful to tropical fish but ammonia is." Could it be that this ammonia spike is not ammonia but ammonium instead? I'm saying this because like I posted above my fish show no signs of distress, no scratching, no loss of appetite, no gaping at the surface, no rotten/ragged fins, no fish is being antisocial, everyone is active they are all following my finger in hopes of being fed I don't know what's happening. Heres the ph test, also could it be a false alarm? I added some water clarifier that came with the sand bags that's the only thing besides apI stress coat.

 

Hi, welcome to fishlore. Hopefully the group here get you squared away with no loss to your fish.

I'll start with you adding water from a cycled tank will not help in cycling a new tank. The bacteria live on things, the highest concentrations will be where ever they have a constant water flow such as filters, bio-media, gravel, decorations, etc.

Did you move all fish from a 10 gal to a 29 gal?

What did you do with the old filter/filter media?
It would be been better to add both filters to the 29 gal for a few weeks, or add some of the old filter media to the new filter.

Do you have something that can detoxify ammonia?
Seachem Prime is usually the preferred product for this.

What is your PH?

 

Well i'm not using the decor from the old tank in the new one(because I wanted live plants and real slate)maybe that's the reason but my old decor is dried up sadly, my old filter is still submerged in old aquirum water thus the bacteria there aren't dead, my ph is 7.6 and no I don't have any products to detoxify ammonia. I can put the old filter media in my new tank even though its a filter for 10 gallon and my new tank has a 30 gallon filter I can put the old one inside and the new one in a corner of the tank so it can gather bacteria maybe this will help.

 

The bacteria will have the highest concentrations on the filter media. If the old media was a black plastic with some kind of filter then just cut the filter floss off and stick it next to the new filter floss for a few weeks.

I'm not suggesting you reuse old decorations, only stating that bacteria live on surfaces and not actually in the water column.

Basically you need to seed your new filter media with anything to help the colonies grow faster.

At your PH, your free ammonia is around .08ppm which is why your fish are still ok, but you will need to get an ammonia neutralizer, AM-QUEL or Prime and conduct frequent water changes

 

The bacteria will have the highest concentrations on the filter media. If the old media was a black plastic with some kind of filter then just cut the filter floss off and stick it next to the new filter floss for a few weeks.

I'm not suggesting you reuse old decorations, only stating that bacteria live on surfaces and not actually in the water column.

Basically you need to seed your new filter media with anything to help the colonies grow faster.

At your PH, your free ammonia is around .08ppm which is why your fish are still ok, but you will need to get an ammonia neutralizer, AM-QUEL or Prime and conduct frequent water changes

I just put the old filter media together with the new one inside the 30 gallon filter luckily they both fit inside the filter now tomorrow I will go walk to my LFS and pick up something that will help detoxify ammonia now my question is what do you mean by free ammonia?

 

Run it like that for at least a few weeks. Unless you were feeding the old water an ammonia source some of the bacteria may have starved but some should still be present drastically shortening the time needed to establish those bacteria on the new filter.

NH3 is free ammonia, it burns gills and scales and that is what kills your fish the fastest. Test kits measure NH3 and NH4+ (a.k.a. ammonium) the lower the PH and temperature, the less NH3 you have and the more NH4+ is present.

 

Run it like that for at least a few weeks. Unless you were feeding the old water an ammonia source some of the bacteria may have starved but some should still be present drastically shortening the time needed to establish those bacteria on the new filter.

NH3 is free ammonia, it burns gills and scales and that is what kills your fish the fastest. Test kits measure NH3 and NH4+ (a.k.a. ammonium) the lower the PH and temperature, the less NH3 you have and the more NH4+ is present.

Oh I see thank you, yea I will leave it like that and I will test in a few days god I was so scared when I saw that dark green inside my ammonia test tube.

 

Welcome to fish lore! Keep on top of your water testing and water changes! See if you can get Seachem Prime then follow this general rule: if ammonia level + nitrite level < 1.0, dose with Prime for the full volume of the tank and recheck levels in 24 hours, if ammonia number + nitrite number = or > 1.0 do a large (50% or more) water change, dose with Primw for the volume of the tank and recheck in 24 hours. When you get Prime can you also get an API master kit? It is much more accurate than the test strips and in the late big run is much cheaper. Good luck! Keep coming back with questions... We are happy to help!

Oh, and I would consider back to back 50% water changes until your ammonia is as close
To 0 as you can get, especially until you get Prime. Just match the water
Temp closely (assuming the pH in your tank and source water are similar.

 

When you get Prime can you also get an API master kit?

He is using the test kit

 

I'm sorry for bringing up this post from a week ago, but I just did a 6 gallon water change on my 29 gallon and I tested the water and I got these results now the ammonia has gotten down(what I did was put the old filter media inside my new filter). The test from last week are still up there in my first post but I will bring them here.
-BEFORE LAST WEEK'S CHANGE

-AFTER LAST WEEK'S CHANGE .

-AFTER DOING WC THIS SUNDAY https://imgur.com/ouxx165

I could use some insight here, does it mean its still cycling? is it possible to get an estimate on how long it has left to complete the cycle?

 

I'm sorry for bringing up this post from a week ago, but I just did a 6 gallon water change on my 29 gallon and I tested the water and I got these results now the ammonia has gotten down(what I did was put the old filter media inside my new filter). The test from last week are still up there in my first post but I will bring them here.
-BEFORE LAST WEEK'S CHANGE

-AFTER LAST WEEK'S CHANGE .

-AFTER DOING WC THIS SUNDAY https://imgur.com/ouxx165

I could use some insight here, does it mean its still cycling? is it possible to get an estimate on how long it has left to complete the cycle?

Yes, your nitrites are extremely high and this means you're still cycling. Once you have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and more than 0 nitrate (usually 5-40ppm), you'll be cycled.
I'd say you're about halfway there. This is the nitrite spike.

 

I'm bringing up this post for a second time (I'm sorry don't kick me out ) just because i'm nervous, like I mentioned above I used old filter media to help cycle my new tank now after three weeks I decided to take that old filter media out so I can cycle another tank(I recently purchased 10 feeder guppies because I felt so bad looking at the tank they were in... Too crowded, the gravel was littered with their little corpses the nerve!)so I'm giving them a chance at a better life I know it was a bad choice and a impulsive purchase but... I felt so bad about them.

Now the reason i'm bringing up this post is because I feel that maybe I removed the old filter too early because I believe I'm still cycling and by removing the old filter media and just leaving the new filter media(it looks brown and its gooey) anyways these are the results from the third week after introducing the old filter media: . Like I said I believe i'm still cycling and by removing the old filter media I committed a mistake I don't want to hurt the fish in my main tank but I don't want to hurt the feeders either! Please some insight here would help, Thank you.

 

I am not clear on what tank these are from, but it looks like nitrates are being produced, so in that sense the tank has partially cycled. However the level of ammonia reflects that the cycle cannot yet handle the bio load. Big water change with Prime. Sorry, don't have time to run through your whole thread.

 

I am not clear on what tank these are from, but it looks like nitrates are being produced, so in that sense the tank has partially cycled. However the level of ammonia reflects that the cycle cannot yet handle the bio load. Big water change with Prime. Sorry, don't have time to run through your whole thread.

The s are from the test with water from my main tank which I have been testing since 3 weeks ago.

Let me put up the tests in a clear order
First week - .
Second week - .
Third week - .

Note these were after a 20% water change.