ammonia in bb tanks build up fast

[discusdummy]

Is it just me or everyone's amonia shots up from 0 to between 25 and .5

[Chicago Discus]

its just you

[Chicago Discus]

Im just kidding how long has the tank been running?

[discusdummy]

It's been up for a year and a half but it was heavily decorated before with large SA ciclhids

[discusdummy]

I probably took out 300 pounds worth of sand,holy rock, and plants

[cjr8420]

Is it just me or everyone's amonia shots up from 0 to between 25 and .5
ur tank is no longer or not fully cycled


It's been up for a year and a half but it was heavily decorated before with large SA ciclhids
was good


I probably took out 300 pounds worth of sand,holy rock, and plants
this + time between fish prob either killed or just removed most of ur benificial bacteria
check waterworks stickys or search cycle.in the mean time less food more WCs even dose with prime/safe between WCs hth
p.s. unless right after a wc could be false reading due to chloramines

[BoiseDiscusGuy]

Sounds like the removal of all your sand, rock, etc. caused a mini-cycle. It should rebound before too long. In the meantime keep an eye on your ammonias and nitrites and plenty of wc's.

[Melissa]

Yup, beneficial bacteria live on every surface of everything in an aquarium and by removing all of the gravel and such you removed a good part of your nitrifying bacteria colony. You may have a while to go before it reestablishes and balances out.
Use a good dechlorinator like prime or SAFE and be prepared for cloudy water and lots of water changes. You'll be fine.
Cloudy water=bacterial bloom.

[discusdummy]

fish where removed got tired of the heavy fighting and i thought the cycle would be over after I took everything out except 1 bn pleco I added turbo 400 for bacteria hit a boom then added6 discus but there prob wasn't enough so another mini cycle hopefully I thought using the enhiem vac would help more I suck everything out 3 times a day then do 20 % wc at night

[joanstone]

I got a little vigorous cleaning my sump last summer and caused the same problem. The tank wouldn't clear up and the ammonia level wouldn't drop-this went on for some time despite my best efforts. I finally ended up adding a product called Smart Start-a beneficial bacteria that I ran across. I was skeptical, but the tank was crystal clear overnight with zero ammonia. I was very impressed and keep some on hand for throwing new tanks up, moving stuff around, etc.

[Orange Crush]

I finally ended up adding a product called Smart Start-a beneficial bacteria that I ran across. I was skeptical, but the tank was crystal clear overnight with zero ammonia.
There are a few products like this that can be very good but, temperature fluctuations, age of product etc. from the time of manufacturing, to shipping, to sitting on the store shelf and at home will effect whether it actually works or not. You could try it but, if you use it I would still test the water daily and be prepared to do lots of water changes just in case.

[joanstone]

Oops, I got it backwards. It's called StartSmart. One thing that I thought was interesting was that the bottle was bulging-the bacteria was definitely alive. I've tried other similar products on occasion out of curiosity, this was the first that I was impressed with. This type of product is often dated, so that can help.