High Ammonia levels?

Question

Hi

i have 10 feeder fish in a 40 gallon tub of water. I changed the water in the tank and about 7-10 hours later it has such a foggy look to it and a verry strong smell of ammonia. If anyone has any clue why this is happening so fast and what i can do about it let me know.

Thanks
lambo

Answer 1

You started off another cycle by changing too much of the water at one go. Buy a gravel washer and remove no more then 30% of the water once a week. The cloudiness is from the nitrifying bacteria trying to grow fast enough to deal with the excess fish waste.
A

Answer 2

Fish excrete waste and it stays in the tank with them. The waste ends up as ammonia which is toxic to fish. Frequent water changes will help control this. Do a 25% water change frequently. If you're smelling the ammonia, then I'd do more like a 50% change the first time since it's probably pretty bad. You can buy a simple kit to test an treat the ammonia levels at a local pet shop. I recommend doing that according to the directions on the package and keep a close eye on the ammonia levels from now on.

Answer 3

The problem is that you are doing what's commonly known as a fish-in cycle, and this is where their fecal and urea begin the whole Nitrogen process.

Personally I do what is called a Fishless Cycle. It's much cleaner - and just less messy overall.

Here's a link you may want to give a read over.

http://www.tropicalfishcentre.co.uk/Fishlesscycle.htm

Since you already have these 10 feeders in there I would either try to see if you can get them into an already cycled tank/aquarium (provided you have another one setup, and completely cycled) or just continue with the Fishin cycle you are doing. Bear in mind that Ammonia will do permanent damage to your fish's gills (provided they even survive), and the next spike (which will be your Nitrites) can damage their Kidney's and Liver's if they are exposed to anything even as low as 0.50PPM for a prolonged period of time (meaning over a couple of months, but the Ammonia is the more deadly of the 2).

Good luck!

Answer 4

Your tap water may have ammonia in it! Most water conditioners say they "remove" ammonia but it doesn't. what it does is it converts ammonia into a less toxic form, ammonium. If your city water does not have ammonia, it has chloramines, which is a "mix" of ammonia and chlorine. Chloramines are more stable than chlorine, that is why it's used instead. Some water conditioners will break down the chlorine part of chloramines thus leaving ammonia still in your water. If your water conditioner is good, it does this but converts the ammonia to the less toxic species, ammonium.
I discovered this because I've been cycling my saltwater aquarium for 2 weeks now with NOTHING in it and the ammonia is still 1 PPM (part per million) which is way too high. It came from the tap water.

Answer 5

Too many fish, in too small of an amount of water is the problem. You are having an ammonia spike and the white foggyness is the nitrifying bacteria breeding to take care of the ammonia.
The rule for baby to juvenile longbodied goldfish (feeder commets) is 20 gallons PER fish. Adults need atleast 50 gallons PER fish.

Answer 6

what kind of filteration do you have. I used sponge filters and put startzyme in the tank{bacteria in a bottle},and amaquell to help remove amonia, When I started a new tank I wouldnt change the water so to let the natural bacteria build up that keeps the ammonia levels down. I would just add new water with more amaquell an startzyme. when I changed the water in my tanks I would sqeeze the sponge from the filter in the old water I took out of the tank because tap watter will kill all the good bacteria. real plant help break in atank quicker also.

Answer 7

what type of filter do you have i hope you didnt empty the whole think you have to many fish you need airstones and 2 filters atleast