Ammonia tests high?

Question

Just started my tank about a month ago. I have four fish in the 10 gallon tank. Use cycle, ammno quel, a conditioner and have done a 10% water change every week. My ammonia tested high the other day and I added an ammonia pack filter to my carbon and element filter pack. I also have an undergravel filter ....so what else can i do? Will the ammonia drop? Is this just a spike? Any ideas welcome

I have a danio, a swordtail, a platy, a small cat...

also I have been sure not to overfeed if anything I underfeed and have added speciemens slowly. I wll remove the ammonia pack when I get home and do a water change and let the tank cycle

Answer 1

I have had so many problems when I started my new tank,the cycle your aquarium has to go through can be really frustrating and if you do not know what you are doing, can be fatal to your fish. Please, for yourself and your fish purchase PRIME, the company product by SEACHEM. Not expensive and will detoxify nitrates,nitrate,removes chlorine,chloramine,and Ammonia, it is also a complete concentrated conditioner for both fresh and saltwater fish. It will convert ammonia into a safe, nontoxic form that is removed by tanks biofilter. GET THIS,trust me this really worked for me and saved my fish .

Answer 2

Forget the Prime and listen to Nunya. Forget all the fancy products and just let the cycling happen naturally. If you've been using ammonia remover products since you started the tank, that could be why your ammonia is still high after so long. The good bacteria need a chance to grow to the level where they can handle the waste being produced in your tank and for that they need to have ammonia. If your ammonia is high, do your water changes a little more often to lower it until those good bacteria kick in. Also, don't change your filter media right now (except to take away the ammonia pack), since the good bacteria live mostly there.

Another possible reason for your ammonia spike is that you overfed recently. Make sure you're not feeding more than your fish will eat in about 2 minutes. Any excess food falls to the bottom and decomposes, releasing ammonia. Overfeeding is the number one killer of fish! Decomposing fish will do the same, but I assume you'd know if you were missing a fish. If you recently added new fish, that will also cause an ammonia spike. Every time you add new fish, your tank will need to do a mini cycle again. This is why you should only add one or two fish at once (for a tank your size).

Answer 3

You are in the first stage of your cycle. Ammonia is deadly to your fish so keep up with the water changes and don't let it get higher then 1ppm, even that can have ill effects on your fishes health. I would take the ammonia pack filter out, yes it lowers the ammonia but it takes it away from the beneficial bacteria that eat it and turn it into nitrite. Nitrite is the second stage of your cycle and just as deadly so make sure that doesn't get too high either. You will finally start to see some nitrate after a while, which is the final stage of a cycle. When you have no ammonia or nitrite your cycle is done and all you will have to do is a simple water change to keep the nitrate under 40 ppm. Depending on the amount of fish and the size of your tank it could be a couple water changes a week to 1 once every other week.

Oh and BTW all fish emit ammonia, its called pee and poo.

Answer 4

Some fish give out ammonia. So some don't eat? Ammonia is literally fish feces, just dissolved. Since the tank is a month old, i suspect that it is cycling. Don't add any more amquel or cycle. Amquel slows the cycle and makes u rely on it and cycle doesn't work. Also take out the ammo pack. If u can find bio-spira, refrigerated and everything, buy and use, it is the only cycling product that works. Since u have fish in there, i would suggest doing 10% changes, DAILY. Also u may want to up it later to 25% weekly.

And Prime is not lousy, it is an excellent dechlorinator that is much more economical than most. Just don't use for for ammonia problems

Answer 5

Don't use ammno quel anymore (you should have let the aquarium cycle by its self even though it may have taken more time, you probably used too much), just do 20% water changes every week (siphon the gravel very good). Change your undergravel filter to a bio-wheel and get a small power head. Hopefully you have small fish that won't grow any more larger than they are right now. And remember DON'T OVER FEED YOUR FISH!

Answer 6

it could be your mix of fish...what kind do you have? some fish naturally emit ammonia