# Overstocked? Ammonia spike.



## mac_33 (Dec 29, 2010)

Hi, I have a 25 gallon tank which i think is heavily planted. Has an Aqua Clear 50 filter. I have 6 peppered cories, 8 sarpae tetras and 9 cardinal tetras, does this seem overstocked?

The reason why I ask is because there seems to be an ammonia spike (2-3ppm) and I've been doing 5 gallon water changes every other day.

I used to have 7 glowlight tetras in there as well before, but took them out after spike which I think was probably caused by added in the cardinals and cories at the same time. 

After the spike I also added in Aqua Clear ammonia remover (in the filter).

Right now I have 20 lbs of marina coated gravel in the tank, should I add more gravel to give the bacteria more room to grow?


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## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

How long has this tank been set up for, when was your last water change (did you do anything with the sponge), and what, when, and how much did you add?


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## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

I forgot to answer your question, lol

Well, adding more gravel would not do very much (unless it's gravel from an established aquarium), you won't get more bacteria than you need to keep ammonia at 0 as the unneeded bacteria would starve. I would just continue doing water changes.


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## mac_33 (Dec 29, 2010)

Joeee said:


> How long has this tank been set up for, when was your last water change (did you do anything with the sponge), and what, when, and how much did you add?


The tank has been set up for a bit more than a month, I used a used filter to seed the tank and made sure that the ammonia and nitrites were 0 before adding fish everytime. Before the spike I had just added in some plants and added then added in the corys and cardinals (too many I think). Then the water became a bit cloudy so I took out the glowlights and put them in my 10 gallon. Then added the ammonia remover cartridge. So I just had to take out the tray from the filter and replace the carbon with the ammonia remover. Still the ammonia was close to 2ppm.

I have the aquaclear 50 so I just replaced the carbon with the ammonia remover.

I did a 5 gallon water change once a day for 3 days now. I'm pouring in the water through the filter, is that a mistake?

Other than that I have been using stresszyme and a water conditioner when adding in the water.

So do you think that this is overcrowding?

I was thinking about the Carib Sea Instant Aquarium or Eco-Complete, those wouldn't help either?


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## Holidays (Apr 18, 2010)

Doesn't seem overcrowded...but a month is quite new (not sure how you cycle your tank) maybe there is a fish died and stuck in the plant somewhere, tried to look through them. if there is remove the dead fish, don't feed them for a day and do 20% water change don't forget to add the conditioner.


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

How did you cycle your tank ? Did you use any bio support chemicals like seachem Stability or so, when cycling ? If not, you should add plants after first week and couple of fish on second week and every two weeks after that no more than two fish for two months or so. If you used bio support to cycle your tank, you should be fine (used sponge media in your filter from other tank will help as well). Your tank not overstocked with AC50 filter. It looks like it was not cycled properly. Go and buy seachem Prime watter conditioner and use it to remove ammonia. It has instructions how to do it and removes ammonia in a day or less.


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## 1200assassin (Jan 14, 2011)

It sounds like your tank is re-cycling itself. Happened to me also when I added to many fish at once to a newly cycled tank. Is you tank a hazy white colour? All suggestions above are excellent however also keep an eye on your nitrate levels as they will spike once your ammonia level taper down.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Yeesh. Did you dechlor the water first before you dump them into your filter or did you just dump tap water straight into your filter?
If you did the tap water straight into your filter. Then that is your problem there. Tap water kills bacteria and you basically to reset your cycle every 2 days.

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## spec v (Aug 8, 2008)

Your aquarium has only been established for one month? It has probably not even finished cycling the first time around yet. Tanks can take 4-6 weeks to stabilize if done from scratch, or cycled in less than a few days if done with media from an established and healthy aquarium.


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## mac_33 (Dec 29, 2010)

Zebrapl3co said:


> Yeesh. Did you dechlor the water first before you dump them into your filter or did you just dump tap water straight into your filter?
> If you did the tap water straight into your filter. Then that is your problem there. Tap water kills bacteria and you basically to reset your cycle every 2 days.


I used the dechlor in the bucket with the water and then put the water in the filter.

It was a used tank, with a used filter and I checked the ammonia and nitrites to make sure that they were zero before adding the fish which makes me think that it was cycled. I also used the bio stuff that helps the bacteria grow everytime before adding in fish.

I've been doing daily water changes and so far so good, no deaths so far, all fish have been accounted for. I also just DIY'd a prefilter to the filter to give the bacteria more room to grow. Attached the thing in the link in the filter intake.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Aquarium-Fish-Ta...452?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a62b5cf6c


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## mac_33 (Dec 29, 2010)

I just wanted to add, is it possible for the ammonia test solution to not be correct, it might be detecting something else?


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## zimmy (Aug 30, 2010)

To test your liquid test kit try it with some bottled spring water. You should get a zero reading. You should not be pouring water into the tank through your filter when doing water changes because you are disrupting the bacteria. You have a very new tank and the bacteria takes time to get established. You basically should not touch your filter for the first couple of months.

I'm guessing your tank is restarting it's cycle because of the bacteria having been disturbed/destroyed. As you said the initial spike might have been caused by increasing the bioload suddenly.

Also, test your tap water to make sure there isn't anything strange going on with it. I get a 0.5 ppm ammonia reading on my water straight out of my tap due to the chloramines and chlorine in the water. Using a good water conditioner (like Prime) locks the ammonia so that it's less harmful. 

Other than the Prime (or another good water conditioner like it), I wouldn't add any chemicals to the water. Just keep doing large water changes daily to get your ammonia below 1.0 ppm. A 5 gallon water change on a 25 gallon tank isn't going to be enough. you need to change at least 10 gallons and might have to do it a couple of times. Make sure the water you're adding is the same temperature so you don't shock the fish.

It would be helpful if you posted your nitrite and pH reading also.

HTH


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## mac_33 (Dec 29, 2010)

zimmy said:


> To test your liquid test kit try it with some bottled spring water. You should get a zero reading. You should not be pouring water into the tank through your filter when doing water changes because you are disrupting the bacteria. You have a very new tank and the bacteria takes time to get established. You basically should not touch your filter for the first couple of months.
> 
> I'm guessing your tank is restarting it's cycle because of the bacteria having been disturbed/destroyed. As you said the initial spike might have been caused by increasing the bioload suddenly.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the replies. The ammonia and nitrites are zero now but it seems that my cardinal tetras have ich now  so I'll be doing some research on that now. Any help would be appreciated.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

mac_33 said:


> I used the dechlor in the bucket with the water and then put the water in the filter.


That's good, but like zimmy said you don't gain much from adding water like that. Just adding straight from bucket into the tank should do.



> .... I also used the bio stuff that helps the bacteria grow everytime before adding in fish.


That's bad, I am beginning to see a trend here. The only time you add this stuff is when you are cycling your tank. Otherwise, why do that? All cycled/bio product start some form of ammonia (either lock or not). But the second stage of your bacteria cycle will always be nitrite spike. You can't excape that and that's where you're hurting your fish.



mac_33 said:


> Thanks for the replies. The ammonia and nitrites are zero now but it seems that my cardinal tetras have ich now  so I'll be doing some research on that now. Any help would be appreciated.


Well, then it's definately showing all the signs of a cycled tank. The ammonia/nitrite spike weakends the fish's immune system and ick sets in.
I would go with the natural method. Put an air stone in, raise the temperature to 30C degree, add 1 tbspn of salt per 10G. Do a quick gravel skim vac everyday or 2. Keep this up until you see stop seeing spots on the fish, then continue for another 4 days just to make sure you get rid of all traces of Ick.

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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

If you are testing right after a water change, you may be detecting ammonium.

What type of dechlorinator are you using? A good one like prime will remove chlorine and chloramine


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