High Ammonia, Zero Nitrate and zero Nitrates

Sloppy

Right, I have been adding new water every week approx 1.5gal though since it evaporates about that much a week.

Curt

I can only imagine the look on your face when you read that! ;)

lorax84

This right here is your problem. Water changes are important because it allows you to vacuum the debris that build up in the gravel out. Having all that left over food and poop in your gravel is just making far to much ammonia for your bacteria to handle, the few bacteria you lost when you changed you filter probably tipped the scale. IMO you should do at least 20-30% water change a week as regular maintenance. Once you get your ammonia back in line the regular water changes are the only way to keep it in line.

redchigh

In a tank only 3 months old, you need weekly water changes. I've read (not sure how true it is..) that extremely high nitrate levels can actually kill the cycling bacteria.

Or your water conditioner could be expired, and the chlorine in your water killed the bacteria.

Sloppy

Thank you very much guys, i'm going to do the 30% change a week till this ammonia problem goes away. I didn't realize I needed to do it more than once a month. As you can tell its my first tank :) I really appreciate all your help. Every time i vacuum my stones there was a ton of debri even though it looks really clean I'm guessing because of my algea eaters working so hard.

Sloppy

Haha, yeah I was bracing for a internet kick in the ass when i started to read that post

Byron

My apology, I certainly mis-understood your (Sloppy's) comment on the 30% water change twice, I somehow assumed you meant twice in the last day.

I absolutely agree with what's subsequently been said, you must do weekly partial water changes, and normally--i.e., when the tank is running normal--the amount can vary from 25-50% of the tank volume--this depends upon live plants (less water the more plants), fish load, both type and number (some fish are messier, more fish are messier) and tank volume in comparison.

Sloppy

No, no problem Byron. I just did a 45% water change because of the high ammonia so i'll keep an eye on it in the next week and change it again next week. I've also reduced my feedings to once a day instead of twice like before. Hopefully that helps as well.

Sloppy

So a day after my water change the ammonia levels went down from 4.0ppm to 0.25ppm. Two days after it went down to zero!!!! Yeah !!!

lorax84

Thats great! make sure you keep a close eye on things for the next few weeks and keep up on the water changes.