M46
Community Member
I have ammonia spike in my 120g FOWLR I have diatoms as well . Tank is cycled 3months old . I have 5 fishes in . Ammonia 0.2ppm , Nitrite 0.1 ppm , PH 8.0ppm , Nitrate 40ppm . I did 25%WC. What can I do ? What went wrong?
Ammonia up
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Rico's Reefnecks
Community Member
I'd say first make sure test kit is not at fault - do replicate measurements if you haven't yet.
But given that nitrates up too you probably have a source of organics somewhere that has been slowly breaking down and is now overwhelming your biofiltration capacity.
If you have sand, debris buildup can cause this at around this time. See if there's a spot that food and fish poo is settling out in the sand and collecting, and that's your problem spot.
Assuming you have sand, for now, you can increase cleanup crew (nassarius particularly handy with sandbeds) and skim more aggressively. If you have an obvious site of detritus buildup, you can siphon the sand bed but selectively only in part of the suspect areas - if you try to siphon the entire sand bed you will throw all of that crud into the water and can spike the ammonia higher. Then try to solve this by redirecting or adding flow.
If you have filter socks, clean or swap out more frequently - whatever you're doing, cut the time in half.
Finally, some people swear by dosing in a little microbacter 7 in situations like this - brightwell makes one and I'm sure there are others. If you have extra bottled bac from tank cycling you could try that as well. Just keep in mind that any bacteria you add in to eat ammonia/nitrates have to be skimmed out when they bloom - otherwise when their nutrient source is consumed they will die back and decay in your tank, leaving you back where you started.
Good luck!
But given that nitrates up too you probably have a source of organics somewhere that has been slowly breaking down and is now overwhelming your biofiltration capacity.
If you have sand, debris buildup can cause this at around this time. See if there's a spot that food and fish poo is settling out in the sand and collecting, and that's your problem spot.
Assuming you have sand, for now, you can increase cleanup crew (nassarius particularly handy with sandbeds) and skim more aggressively. If you have an obvious site of detritus buildup, you can siphon the sand bed but selectively only in part of the suspect areas - if you try to siphon the entire sand bed you will throw all of that crud into the water and can spike the ammonia higher. Then try to solve this by redirecting or adding flow.
If you have filter socks, clean or swap out more frequently - whatever you're doing, cut the time in half.
Finally, some people swear by dosing in a little microbacter 7 in situations like this - brightwell makes one and I'm sure there are others. If you have extra bottled bac from tank cycling you could try that as well. Just keep in mind that any bacteria you add in to eat ammonia/nitrates have to be skimmed out when they bloom - otherwise when their nutrient source is consumed they will die back and decay in your tank, leaving you back where you started.
Good luck!
mcgullen
Active Member
Has your water also become cloudy?
If yes, your diatoms can be dying en masse, spiking your ammonia. Try removing as much diatoms from glass/rocks/substrate as possible, do a water change after and use filter floss/socks/activated carbon to catch as much diatoms as possible and rinse out everything. Then measure ammonia again.
If yes, your diatoms can be dying en masse, spiking your ammonia. Try removing as much diatoms from glass/rocks/substrate as possible, do a water change after and use filter floss/socks/activated carbon to catch as much diatoms as possible and rinse out everything. Then measure ammonia again.
As long as ammonia and nitrite stay low like these results, they are of little concern.
EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal
Just another girl who likes fish
Now that you've used Prime, most ammonia tests will be useless since Prime *TEMPORARILY* converts ammonia to a non-toxic form. The ammonia is still in your tank. Not saying this was a bad move, just that it's not the final one. If you can, do another water change and add some bottled bacteria so your tank can more quickly process the increased ammonia.
M46
Community Member
I did WC I do have skimmer . I think tank is still new and there’s some bioload I guess. Thanks
65lbs of rocks , 80lbs of sand some ceramic blocks in sump , I think my bacteria can’t catch up with ammonia , 2 tangs , trigger fish, foxface , small butterfly fish , 2 clowns , all of them looks great
M46
Community Member
How much WC would you recommend ? And don’t use prime anymore?
Fishless cycle with ammonia, Red Sea test kit, about 2 fishes every 2 weeks
EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal
Just another girl who likes fish
First, there is substantial debate as to whether or not Prime actually does anything for ammonia. If it does what it says it does, it will only detoxify ammonia for 24 hours -after that, if there was a dangerous amount of ammonia in your tank before you added Prime and you did nothing else to lower it, the ammonia will again be at a dangerous level. (It's debatable that your ammonia was too high to begin with though...)
My only point was that "detoxified" ammonia will show up on most tests the same as if you hadn't added Prime, so testing again within 24 hours of using it will probably not be helpful.
My only point was that "detoxified" ammonia will show up on most tests the same as if you hadn't added Prime, so testing again within 24 hours of using it will probably not be helpful.
