Ammonia in relatively new tank

I made some mistakes and learned from them, just want to make sure I'm on the right path.

- Started with a 35lit tank (30cm long) and added plants and let the filter run for a few weeks to cycle.
- After ammonia readings seemed on the caution side of safe, I added 7 Neon Cardinals. I figured I'd
need to introduce a bit of a bioload to encourage more bacteria to colonize.
- Didn't research the cardinals properly and realized after getting them that a 35lit was too small
- Went out and got a (60cm) 75lit, along with a new double sponge filter.
- Spent a messy evening moving everything into the new tank, I figured that since the sponge filter on my old tank had been cycling for about a month, there'd be a decent amount of bacteria once I moved it into the new tank, along with treated water (Ammonia Safe, liquid bacteria) and a 2nd more powerful filter running alongside it.

I'm testing for ammonia every 3-4 days and the readings stay around 0.5 ppm. I'm doing 30% water changes 2-3 times a week.

I'm guessing I just have to keep up the water changes until more bacteria colonizes and is able to handle the load.

 

Added too many fish at once I would say. Try adding Seachem Stability to help the bacteria along. Seachem Prime would help detoxify the ammonia as well. I would increase the frequency of the water changes. Ammonia + fish = bad

 

I'm also still fairly new at fish keeping but I have one established tank and one new tank and when I do water changes on the new tank i add some water from the established tank (along with the new water). Maybe it's just me being superstitious or something, but i feel like it keeps my fish happy in the new tank.

 

True, which is why I gambled on adding a few cardinals (I only wanted 6, but the guy at the store gave me a freebie so... hey, free fish) to encourage a bit of ammonia to stimulate more bacteria colonization. The Tetra ammonia testing strips range from Ideal - Safe - Stress - Caution - Danger. I do 30% water changes when it shifts to "Caution" and after the change it's usually around the stress level, which I hope means there's enough ammonia in the water to encourage more bacteria growth, but not so much that it becomes too dangerous.

I moved the filter from my old aquarium (as is, with all it's bacteria) straight into the new one hoping that it meant I wouldn't have to cycle the aquarium before adding a few fish. Seems like that was only somewhat successful.

At least all the tetras don't seem to behaving unusually or showing signs of illness. So, I'm hoping they'll be able to ride out these few weeks of discomfort.

 

Plants plant plants ... a very dense well planted tank is the route to cycling your tank - filter bacteria is great but the magic also happens in the substrate ... maybe even more so than the filter in a well planted tank.

Later Ferdie

 

I have a few plants and want to see if they'll grow and fill out the background before getting more.
In the interests of aquascaping and aesthetics, I like putting in a large amount of substrate and shaping it into crevices, dips and slopes towards the front, adding dimension. I think my substrate sits close to 10cm at its highest point in the front and higher at the back. Would such a large amount of substrate help or add to the ammonia problem?

 

Howzit Rezryk

I think everything you've done so far is correct, cycle time and water changes, moving cycled media between tanks etc... and hey, your fish are still alive

Personally I don't hold much faith in filters that use air to pull water through a sponge. A HOB or internal power filter with some Seachem Matrix is much better at establishing a little tank like that. Small tanks are harder to keep stable and can spike almost overnight. If ammonia spikes and you have a HOB you can throw some zeolite in it for a week.

 

Seachem Prime and Stability is your friends, especially when establishing a new tank.

Best to cut down on the feeding for the 1st 2 weeks until your tank's bacteria can handle the bio-load.

More food = more poop = higher ammonia.

The 30 second rule is a good baseline to use when feeding you fish.

Also make sure that your detox has the ability to bind ammonia, nitrites and nitrates, using seachem prime gives you a 48 hour binding period which allows for the bacteria to play catch-up.

Most municipalities use chlorimines in their water supplies, if your detox agent only neutralises the chlorine part, your water-changes may even be contributing to the high ammonia levels.

Ask one of the Capetonians to give you some media from an established tank, this should get your tank cycled within 72 hours.

Take note that the anaerobic bacteria take about 6 months to establish themselves, so the breakdown of Nitrates to Proteins will take a bit longer to get running.

 

It may boost the cycle a bit but it won't complete it within such a short period. Before Seachem Prime etc the standard cycle expectation was between 6 to 10 weeks. I maintain that this is still the most crucial period in establishing a tank and no amount of chemicals, pre-establish media or any other modern trick should deter a fishkeeper from exercising caution in this period. Tanks are made and destroyed in this crucial stage.

 

Fairly recently set up a small 60 litre tank myself and did some more reading on things having not had to fresh cycle a new tank in a while. To add to the good advice already given, and seeing as you are also in CT - if you find your tank is taking longer than expected it might also be down to the low KH of our water. Bacteria needs this carbonate hardness at a decent level to grow at a good rate, and our tap water is 0-1KH (very soft).
You want that around 4 ideally, at least during the cycling phase. If you don't have a KH test kit, a local fish store will test for you.

If its low, to raise it add a bit of baking soda (I use the regular Robertson's branded one in the blue boxes) with your water changes.
The dose is 1 flat teaspoon per 50 US gal / 189 litres for a KH +1 increase. Don't raise it all the way up in one shot as the PH climbs with it - I'd raise it over two water changes to be safe. Some say you can lightly top it up daily directly into the tank but I've only added with water changes.

Keep an eye on your PH. Our tap PH is high here in CT, but tends to drop a bit when in the tank a while. Below neutral / PH 7, bacteria takes longer to build up. The PH your tank ends up at when established would be the one you keep steady, as most fish will adapt to it unless they have particular needs.
I use Seachem Equilibrium to keep the GH (General Hardness) at a decent level - out the tap our water is also pretty low at around 2 or 3. That you can look into a bit more depending on fish and plants you keep, but a level of around 5 or 6 GH seems to be the average minimum advised in my experience.

Another thing is water temperature - 27ºC and above ideally will again assist the beneficial bacteria to multiply at a good rate. Slows down at lower temps but if you are keeping Cardinals they'd be fine at 28 - 30 degrees C, which is great for cycling.

Finally, if you find your Nitrites are 0; your Nitrates are reading and yet despite frequent water changes, your Ammonia seems to hang at the same level for a long time have a look at this link I found recently: http://www.aquaworldaquarium.com/Articles/TonyGriffitts/Ammonia.htm
The Total Ammonia Nitrogen (TAN) is a more precise means of seeing where things stand.
If you are doing regular water changes with Seachem Prime then it will detoxify ammonia (how much so I don't know) for 24 hours while the tank is cycling. So, frequent smaller water changes are ideal.

Good luck!

 

Great article, thanks for the info.

 

Happy to share @Toy @A new day

This looks like quite a nice device for those willing to spend on it (don't have one myself): https://growopz.com/collections/ph-ec-measurement/products/continuous-ph-ec-monitor
I only have a TDS pen and Tetra/ JBL liquid test kits.

There is some interesting reading re Aquariums & lighting on that site. We really need better LED options locally, especially for planted/ aquascaping with rimless tanks. I've complained/ pleaded to most LFS in CT haha.