Seeing ammonia help

I'm pretty new to the forum & have gotten some really good info. I started up a 65 gal tank on the 1st of February and did a fish-in cycle w/4 guppies. Everything was going good until the ammonia levels started climbing. The level went to 1 ppm so I did a 50% water change and dosed the tank with Ammo Lock. That helped but didn't get rid of it. I added Zeolite to the filter and that didn't seem to do much. I thought I was cleaning the gravel too much and backed off on that. I read an article that you can use Seachem Stability to boost bacteria levels and the next day the ammonia was 2 ppm! Did another 50% change yesterday, change the filter pads and the zeolite. Nitrates are 0 as of this morning and ammonia is back to 1 ppm. Where did I go wrong? I had a 35 gal before and never had this issue. Thank you for any tips, tricks, advice etc.

 

If you can get some seachem Prime and use it instead of ammo-lock you should be able to get a handle on the ammonia. Ammo-lock locks up the ammonia thus keeps the bacteria from being able to process it. Prime detoxes the ammonia so protects your fish from its damaging affects but it is still there and your bacteria will be able to process it.

The only time I can see ammo-lock being useful is if someone has a sudden ammonia spike but are unable to do an immediate water change.

 

What is your filtration? If you are using 1 HOB and your cycle is still not finished you shouldn't change the filter pad(s). That is the biggest spot that the Beneficial Bacteria will come in contact with ammonia. For a fish in cycle the best option I have used is lots of water changes and seachem prime.

Once you see ammonia above 1ppm do a 40 - 50% water change and dose with Prime.

It may take awhile and a lot of water but eventually you should see ammonia and nitrite stable at 0 and only nitrate increasing . Then the cycle is done

 

I did a 50% water change on Saturday and the ammonia level was down by half! It's starting to creep back up so doing a smaller water change today. I appreciate the advice - it's helping!

Pat

 

Did another 50% change yesterday, change the filter pads and the zeolite. Nitrates are 0 as of this morning and ammonia is back to 1 ppm. Where did I go wrong? I had a 35 gal before and never had this issue. Thank you for any tips, tricks, advice etc.

I don't know how I missed this the first time around. You really don't want to be changing the filter pads. That is where your bacteria is trying to grow. It grows on everything in the tank but the strongest colony is going to be on your filter media. The only time it should be changed is if it is falling apart or even after rinsing it in some of the water you have taken out of the tank after doing a water change water isn't flowing through it freely.

I did a 50% water change on Saturday and the ammonia level was down by half! It's starting to creep back up so doing a smaller water change today. I appreciate the advice - it's helping!

Pat

Water changes to get and keep the ammonia down is the very best thing you can do for the well being of your fish, so good job on the 50% water change. Even if you have to do one every day if needed it might slow the cycling process down a bit but when doing a fish in cycle keeping the ammonia down below one is critical to your water pets health.

 

Thank you mattgirl I realized that I was wrong to change the filter pads; I added the zeolite to a refillable cartridge. Believe me, those things are going to be in there for a while!