Random Spike In Levels

[Rossaquatics]

hey guys/gals as the title states my tank randomly today had its first spike since the cycle 3 months ago. It’s a 20 gallon tall 4 4 guppies and two golden nugget plecos.. which two of the golden nugget plecos I added today. I do my water changes every Monday and test my water when needed. Well literally as soon as I added the two plecos within a half hour I was just curious as to what the levels were. Well ammonia was .50 and nitrite was .25 and nitrate was a tad lower then 5.0. Just did a water change and tested again and levels are higher! And the two plecos are hanging out on top of the tank. Any advice would help!

 

[Michael Albert]

Are you using tap water for the water changes? I know my tap water has 1.0 ppm ammonia at least. Also are you using prime or some other type of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate detoxifier? That could be why the levels got higher after a water change.

Also sorry to double post but those plecos are going to outgrow that 20 gallon.

 

[Rossaquatics]

Yes I use tap and my tap has no ammonia or others. I use dechlor to get rid of the chlorine, and just started using stability. And yes I know they will outgrow they will grow about 2 more inches and I’ll move them.

I also have safestart should I be using that?

 

[FrostedFlakes]

IMO remove the plecos. Plecos are notorious for being massive waste producers and your cycle and volume of water probably couldn't handle the plecos right away. That's just my guess. Until you can rehome them I would do frequent water changes and get some seachem prime to help detox.

 

[Rossaquatics]

Ya no way I’m getting rid of the plecos, certain plecos cause more or less waste. The golden nuggets don’t cause nearly as much waste as a common. To be honest I think I got some of the water he wasn’t shipped with in the fish tank.

 

[FrostedFlakes]

All plecos are waste machines, golden nuggets are no different. I meant move them to another tank, not get rid of them. Golden nuggets are gorgeous, so of course you'd want to keep them. Regardless of whether it was from the shipping bag or not, I would still highly advise more frequent water changes with prime. A volume of 20 gallons isn't very good for a bioload of 2 plecos. This is just what I recommend.

 

[Valleriani]

I'm pretty sure they grow up to 20-22cm and require 50-55 gallon tanks. There is a high chance that when the grow even bigger it's going to be too much for you tank resulting in spikes that your tank can't handle.

If you do want to keep them, I'd get/move them to a bigger tank though like FrostedFlakes said.

Once they hit puberty they'll most likely become territorial too and don't like sharing space with other plecos so they will most likely need the space if you are going to keep them together. Obviously this would be based on each fish itself and all fish can have different temperaments but in a 20 gallon there won't be any room for them.