Slight Ammonia Reading

in my 55G Mbuna cichlid tank, I had it cycled and running good with 11 juvenile cichlids. Water parameters were as follows:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20
PH 8.2

2 1/2 days ago I added 4 more juvenile Mbuna cichlids to complete my stock at 15 and now my water parameters are:

PH 8.2
Ammonia .25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20

I have been monitoring the ammonia daily and added prime yesterday and going to add more tomorrow if ammonia is still at .25. Also added stability today. Should I be concerned? Am I doing the right thing? If my ammonia gets to .5 then I was going to do a 50% water change...... any suggestions? Any idea what may be going on? MinI cycle?
I am currently running a Fluval 406 canister filter

 

You only develop enough bacteria to handle your current bio-load, since any excess bacteria would starve off. So when you added the 4 additional fish, you increased the amount of ammonia being introduced into the tank. You now suddenly have more ammonia than you do bacteria to process it all.

But your bacteria colony should grow large enough to handle the additional ammonia pretty quickly, so I wouldn't be too concerned. I would also think that so long as your ammonia is under 1ppm, you could just add enough Prime to treat the entire tank every 24 hours. But doing a water change at .5ppm certainly will not hurt anything.

 

sounds like a minI cycle to me from the extra fish added.. also sounds like you are on top of it.. Keep it up your on the right track

 

Thank you both for your help

 

HI there, yes agree with the others the bacteria will catch up.

I always double check my numbers if there is any issue. If I see a fish flicking or flashing it is a quick check that nothing has disappeared.

The tests never show anything but I do have to check.

I believe now that they flash because I use a very fine sand that sometimes gets knocked up into the water column. Must be unpleasant having the gills full of sand.

However I still test and count my fish.

 

Thank you both for your help

You are welcome

 

So it has not been almost 5 days and still getting a .25 ammonia reading... all fish look great and are acting normal. I am still adding prime every other day and my weekly wc will be 3 days from now on Saturday. Should I be concerned it has been 5 days and no reduction of ammonia? Could it be false readings from the API master test kit? How long should should it take for the BB to be established enough to handle the new bio load? When should I start to be concerned?

 

You might get some TSS (but not TSS+, that’s for starting the cycle, not maintaining it) to boost your bacteria, that should help (here’s a little tip: put the majority of your monthly TSS dose into the filter itself. Its somewhat more effective that way, at least from my knowledge)

 

While I would have expected your ammonia level to have zeroed out by now, I wouldn't get too concerned yet. So I would just stay the course...for now at least.

 

I think you may need to add more filtration. Overstocked African Cichlid tanks need to be over-filtered. I would add twice the amount you would have for a general community tank.

 

HI there, beneficial bacteria colonies take roughly 10 hours to double so if it was adequate for 11 it should take roughly 10 hours to cope with double that. It is not an exact science and clearly there are lags between different bacteria types.

However it should have caught up within a day or two.

There are a couple of things that spring to mind.

1) Is there an ammonia source in terms of something biological that has died. A fish is the obvious thing but could there be a load of algae (Not normally plant based which leads to ammonia but protein based. Plant based normally leads to high nitrates) cleaned up and festering in the filter?

2) Is the filter clean inside? If a filter gets clogged with gunk, clean oxygenated water cannot reach the bacteria and the colony actually decreases.

3) Is the current filter sufficient to deal with the bioload? If the filter is well maintained is it sufficient to filter the bioload? Firstly is there sufficient turnover? Does the filter turnover the aquarium enough times? Most agree the absolute minimum should be 5 times the tank volume per hour so a 100 gallon tank needs to move 500 gallons per hour. Whereas most would agree 5 times is the absolute minimum there is a big debate on what is actually required in terms of maintaining a 'good' environment; many (myself included) believe that to be a minimum of ten times.

Could something be preventing adequate flow through the filter? Blocked or obstructed intake/outlet, kinked hoses, blocked hoses maybe through some substrate (or have any fish ever gone missing? Could one have been sucked into the pipework?).

4) Finally does the filter have sufficient media? Some filters are just supplied with insufficient media to cut down cost; for example I once bought a canister filter which came with a small bag of charcoal, a small bag of ceramic media and some bioballs. I knew that it needed more than double the ceramic and bioballs whilst I did not use the charcoal instead having a top tray with floss and foams.

So I actually increased the filtration by well over three times than if just using what was supplied by the filter manufacturer. Charcoal especially becomes exhausted in terms of chemical filtration and over time loses effective surface area for bacterial colonisation so filtration capacity reduces over time.

These would be my initial thoughts. It could of course be that the test kit has become a bit dodgy (not sure how this happens). I once had a shock of a positive test for ammonia in one of my tanks. I thoroughly rinsed the tube; tested again and fine. Just wondering if somehow the test kit has been compromised.

 

Good advice above.

If your ammonia refuses to drop after you've tried everything else, you will need to increase filtration.

The fluval 406 is rated for 100 gallons. Lets say that is not accurate and it actually filters 75 gallons fully stocked. You have a 55 overstocked with African cichlids, which I would at the minimum double the filtration, would mean filtration for 110 gallons. Which means you would need at least filtration for 35 more gallons. I know this is simplified and not totally accurate, but it gives you an idea of where you should be.

You could add another canister filter or add more media to your existing filter. Also, you could add a medium/large sponge filter to an air pump and economically increase your filtration capacity. However, not everyone cares for the look of sponge filters in their tank.

 

HI there, beneficial bacteria colonies take roughly 10 hours to double so if it was adequate for 11 it should take roughly 10 hours to cope with double that. It is not an exact science and clearly there are lags between different bacteria types.

However it should have caught up within a day or two.

There are a couple of things that spring to mind.

1) Is there an ammonia source in terms of something biological that has died. A fish is the obvious thing but could there be a load of algae (Not normally plant based which leads to ammonia but protein based. Plant based normally leads to high nitrates) cleaned up and festering in the filter?

2) Is the filter clean inside? If a filter gets clogged with gunk, clean oxygenated water cannot reach the bacteria and the colony actually decreases.

3) Is the current filter sufficient to deal with the bioload? If the filter is well maintained is it sufficient to filter the bioload? Firstly is there sufficient turnover? Does the filter turnover the aquarium enough times? Most agree the absolute minimum should be 5 times the tank volume per hour so a 100 gallon tank needs to move 500 gallons per hour. Whereas most would agree 5 times is the absolute minimum there is a big debate on what is actually required in terms of maintaining a 'good' environment; many (myself included) believe that to be a minimum of ten times.

Could something be preventing adequate flow through the filter? Blocked or obstructed intake/outlet, kinked hoses, blocked hoses maybe through some substrate (or have any fish ever gone missing? Could one have been sucked into the pipework?).

4) Finally does the filter have sufficient media? Some filters are just supplied with insufficient media to cut down cost; for example I once bought a canister filter which came with a small bag of charcoal, a small bag of ceramic media and some bioballs. I knew that it needed more than double the ceramic and bioballs whilst I did not use the charcoal instead having a top tray with floss and foams.

So I actually increased the filtration by well over three times than if just using what was supplied by the filter manufacturer. Charcoal especially becomes exhausted in terms of chemical filtration and over time loses effective surface area for bacterial colonisation so filtration capacity reduces over time.

These would be my initial thoughts. It could of course be that the test kit has become a bit dodgy (not sure how this happens). I once had a shock of a positive test for ammonia in one of my tanks. I thoroughly rinsed the tube; tested again and fine. Just wondering if somehow the test kit has been compromised.

Awesome information, thank you.... so I have 4 trays in my filter and about 2 weeks ago I did take the charcoal out of the top 2 trays and added a polishing pad to tray 2 and bio max to trays 3 and 4.... I am thinking I should put the polishing pad on top of the black sponge in tray 1 and then have 3 trays of bio max for more B.B. to grow on? What are your thoughts on that?

 

Awesome information, thank you.... so I have 4 trays in my filter and about 2 weeks ago I did take the charcoal out of the top 2 trays and added a polishing pad to tray 2 and bio max to trays 3 and 4.... I am thinking I should put the polishing pad on top of the black sponge in tray 1 and then have 3 trays of bio max for more B.B. to grow on? What are your thoughts on that?

Water on most of the canister filter flows bottom up, the first set of trays on the bottom should be the coarse filter, the the fine and polishing pads and then the last trays at the top should be the media for bacteria. The bio trays need to get clean filtered water for bacteria to thrive. I know of folks that lost bacteria cycle by exposing the bio trays first to unfiltered water. Hope this helps...

 

Water on most of the canister filter flows bottom up, the first set of trays on the bottom should be the coarse filter, the the fine and polishing pads and then the last trays at the top should be the media for bacteria. The bio trays need to get clean filtered water for bacteria to thrive. I know of folks that lost bacteria cycle by exposing the bio trays first to unfiltered water. Hope this helps...

Yes it does, and mine does flow from the bottom up and how I will set it up is the entire side wall where the water goes down to tray one is 4 long coarse sponges, then to tray 1 which will be the black foam pad and a polishing pad on top, then stage 2-4 will all have bio max for the B.B..... does that sound like a good system?

 

HI there it sounds like a good plan, the more surface area in the media the more bacteria you will have. Top quality ceramic media have an enormous surface area. I also like top quality bioballs (some of the cheap ones are just a small bit of foam in a perforated plastic shell - total rubbish) as they can really contribute to high oxygenation levels.

However there does have to be a balance between oxygen for fish and CO2 for plants. Finding the sweet spot where everything gets into balance takes a lot of tweaks and experimentation.

Plants need to grow to look good and suppress algae. Fish need to be healthy and ideally it is great to get it all working nicely together without additional CO2.

Every tank is different so just have the confidence to experiment. Eventually you will get it how you like it. That at the end of the day (as long as fish are healthy) is what matters.