I have a fish tank with very high amonia levels?

Question

My amonia levels were fine the other day. All of a sudden they peaked. I did a quarter water change and added CYCLE to lower the amonia levels. This morning the levels were higher and the water is so milky, what should I do?

Answer 1

When you first introduce fish (such as your Scout Fish) into an aquarium, things begin to impact the water quality. This is inevitable, and you should have few if any problems. But you do need to pay attention to your water chemistry.

The changing chemistry of the water in your aquarium is commonly referred to as The Nitrogen Cycle. It works like this:

Various elements (uneaten food, fish waste, bits of plants, etc.) decay in the aquarium, usually in the gravel. This decay can create ammonia. In addition, the fish excrete ammonia through their gills. This is when the Nitrogen Cycle begins.
Fortunately, as the ammonia develops, your aquarium is also growing beneficial bacteria, in both the filter and in the gravel.

Some of these beneficial bacteria lead us to the second stage, breaking down the ammonia into nitrite (another harmful chemical if left unchecked).

Now (third stage), other types of our "Good Guy" bacteria come into play, breaking down the nitrite into nitrate. At this point, the ammonia should be at zero, and nitrite levels should be dropping to zero. So you'll now see low levels of nitrates.

Nitrates are not directly toxic, but be careful " very high levels could indicate poor water quality, leading to further problems. A water change will reduce the nitrates.

Cloudy water is common during this period. This is because the system is still not balanced. It is best to wait out the cloudy period, and the water will become balanced and clear on its own

The Nitrogen Cycle typically takes approximately 4 to 5 weeks to get to the healthy "nitrate" state. The really good news is that once your tank is properly "cycled" the beneficial bacteria in the aquarium will continuously break down fish waste and uneaten food, helping to keep your tank healthy, as long as you continue routine maintenance.

Answer 2

Is this a newly set up tank? If so it may well be a natural cycle. The cloudiness is a called a biological bloom and will clear up after a few days. If it's an older tank I would suggest re-evaluating your feeding schedule and amounts as most times it's an overfeeding issue. Sometimes too you can force a tank into a mini-cycle by adding new fish or having a fish die that isn't quickly removed from the tank. If the tank is new, stop doing water changes and just let the tank sit. If it's older, continue with 20% water changes weekly until conditions improve and consider adding some ammonia remover to your filter media. I wouldn't do more than a 20% change at a time or you may just cause your tank to cycle all over again, in turn causing what you're trying to prevent.
Best of luck!

Answer 3

Cycle does not work. First question do you have fish in there? If not then it's no big deal. If no fish you could just wait it out until the ammonia level went down of do a water change.

2nd question did you let your tank cycle? Or did you immediately add fish? If you added fish without cycling it could be you put too many fish in at once that's the reason the high ammonia spike. You may want to see if you can house some of your fish somewhere else for the time being.
Hopefully you waited until it cycled if not hopefully you have hardy fish that can live through the ammonia spikes.
I would first say if you have fish in there and it hasn't finished cycling yet do an immediate water change.
Anywhere from 20-30% some even say 50% for a water change. You are going to have to keep doing this everyday until the ammonia levels are back down. It's a pain in the butt, but if your fish aren't hardy enough then sooner or later you'll be flushing them down the toilet.

I also recommend going to a fish forum, where you'll talk to a great deal of people with a lot of experience and knowledge.
Good luck!

Answer 4

First thing is do a water change to get the ammonia level down. You don;t say how old the tank has been running, but if less that a few weeks it's totally normal and something you will have to watch and monitor daily until it drops by itself due to the cycle getting established.

If the tank has been running for a while and ammonia levels were 0 then suddenly spiked then you may need to determine the cause. Potential causes would be a very large water change and a filter replacement or the addition of quite a few new fish. Whatever caused it, something has disrupted your cycle and it will need time to re-establish itself properly. During that time you will need to treat it as if it's a new uncycled aquarium and monitor the ammonia daily and do water changes as needed to lower the ammonia level. Of course, it will take far less time than with a new tank.

The cloudiness you are seeing is a bacterial bloom. As the bacteria colonize surfaces in your tank and filter they will die off from the water column and the water will clear.

If you have any questions feel free to email me

MM

Answer 5

Do a 25% water change everyday. Buy some stress Zone. Dont' just add that now, but everytime you do a water change. Put some aquarium salt in there, and buy live plants. Live plants feed off amonia so they will help take it out of the water. And overall make for a healier environment for your fish. Good luck, and work fast. Plus, make sure to change ur filter. Carbon filters are only active for about 7 days even though they till you they are good for 14. And you may want to take ur filter and give it a good rinse just to make sure you dont' have a waste build up.

Answer 6

Keep doing daily partial water changes and make sure you use a dechloraminator to the water.

Did you recently set up the tank? Spikes are quite common with new tanks. Hopefully you don't have many fish yet.

It takes about 3 weeks for the water in a new tank to cycle through the bacterial growth process that is necessary for your tank to become established. It can be more difficult to stabilize the water quality in small tanks than in large.

Answer 7

the milky water is natural...at least for me. Any time I treat my water for high ammonia the same thing happends. I would continue to try and lower the ammouna and make small water changes. There are also rocks you can get in a baggie to dro pin your tank...it absorbs the ammonia.

Answer 8

if you have any goldfish in your tank with any other fish take out the gold fish they produse high ammonia that other fish cannot handel as for the milky water its normal with treaments

Answer 9

Add an ammonia detoxifier until the ammonia is gone.

Answer 10

Adding some Zeolite to your filter cartridge should help.