Changing Filter / Amonia Problem

Mackman

Hi All,

I have a tropical freshwater tank (110L) i bought 6months ago. Everything cycled properly at it was going great up until about a week ago when the amonia level shot up. The only change I made to the tank was i got some live plants for it.

Since i discovered the amonia problem i took the plants out, ive been using amonia remover and doing water changes (20% using a siphon to clean the gravel), and ive reduced the amount of food i put in. but its not doing much. Its a little better but there's still amonia present.

The filter i got was in a package with the tank, and i think its struggling to keep the water clean. I have to clean it regularly so i went and bought a big external filter.

My question is how to change over the filters? Do i leave the two of them running together for a certain time and then remove the old one? Do i move over the media with the bacteria from the old one to the new one?
And finally, is there anything else i can do to help the amonia problem?

Any advice is appreciated

fungun

running the 2 together for a while would prob be the best option. Live plants should help an ammonia spike, not cause one...unless there are lots of dead bits of plants, make sure to remove any bits of plants floating around. Had you added new fish recently or anything?

Mackman

No hadnt had any new fish. I actually have less, one of my firemouths died a while ago before this started.

Yeah the plants i got were not the strongest and my pleco just destroyed them so there were bit of plants floating around, so i just removed them altogether.

fred funk }{

For some reason your tank isn't cycling. I don't think it's anything to do with your plants and more likely to do with chlorinated water entering the tank during a water change. Chlorine is put in our water to kill bacteria so we won't get ill from drinking it. It also means it kills the good bacteria in our tanks.

First thing to do is stop feeding the fish, a flake or two every three days. You must stick to this as every bit of food entered into the tank ends up as ammonia which will kill the fish quickly. The fish wont starve.

Change 20% of the water daily and monitor the ammonia and nitrite levels.

What exactly is your water changing routine?

Mackman

I have been using "Bio Active Tap Safe" in the water ive been adding to the tank. Its supposed to get rid of the chlorine. Maybe im not using enough?

I would usually change 15-20 water about every 3-4 weeks. But since this happened ive been doing that every couple of days. Ill start doing it every day now. And ill stop feeding them.

I also have a treatment called "Filter Start", which has the good bacteria in it, i started putting some of that in there yesterday.(only remembered i had it, oops) That might help too.

fungun

15-20% water change every 4 weeks is not really enough if your tank is anywhere near fully stocked. How many fish do you have in there?

Mackman

Yeah its pretty fully stocked. Got 1 Angel, 3 Firemouths, and a sailfin pleco. They're all still pretty small, gonna have to upgrade to a bigger tank at some stage though

fred funk }{

Mackman wrote: »

I have been using "Bio Active Tap Safe" in the water ive been adding to the tank. Its supposed to get rid of the chlorine. Maybe im not using enough?

I would usually change 15-20 water about every 3-4 weeks. But since this happened ive been doing that every couple of days. Ill start doing it every day now. And ill stop feeding them.

I also have a treatment called "Filter Start", which has the good bacteria in it, i started putting some of that in there yesterday.(only remembered i had it, oops) That might help too.

Fish keeping is really water keeping, if the water is good the fish will look after themselves and one of the biggest problems is over-feeding. Fish food is concentrated so that means the fish need very little. A few flakes per fish every few days is enough and the tank will be cleaner too as the fish, while being a little peckish, will forage for food around the tank and will eat the little bits and pieces in the gravel etc.

If i was you i would buy a new bucket and use it only for water changes. Every week change one bucket of water using a gravel syphon. Before putting the new water in leave it stand for half an hour with the dechlorinator mixed through it as per instructions on the bottle. And when cleaning anything from the tank use old aquarium water and not tap water, tap water is your enemy .

In the mean time keep doing regular water changes and test the water every few days. When you start to a see NitrIte reading you know the cycle is starting and when you see NitrAte the cycle is really starting to get going. When you no longer have any Nitrite or ammonia readings and have a Nitrate reading your tank is cycled. But it's vital to keep the water changes going every few days in the mean time. Low levels of Nitrate is acceptable in the tank.

Mackman

Great thanks Fred, ill do that.

Ill get the hang of it at some stage

fred funk }{

Good luck