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Thread: am i over feeding ammonia reading

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    Default am i over feeding ammonia reading

    So over the last week or so i lost 3 german rams that i have had for around a year. And im trying to figure out the cause there in a community tank with my discus all the other fish seem to be fine i cleaned one of my aquaclear filters last week like i normally do I cleaned out the sponge with tank water and washed the bio balls in tank water which ive done this way a million times i do this about every 3 weeks and i alternate filters i have two filters set up on my 125 gallon tank and i do water changes 5 times a week 50 percent. I feed 3 times a day i feed als fdbws twice a day and one feeding of pellets or beefheart and at night i drop a few pellets in for my plecos my current stock level is 7 adult discus 20 cardnial tetras 20 rummy nose tetras and 4 l plecos and i did have 3 german rams i did a water test today since ive been losing the rams and all my other levels seemed fine but i have an ammonia reading that was a little over .25ppm any ideas thanks alot

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    Platinum Member fljones3's Avatar
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    Default Re: am i over feeding ammonia reading

    Quote Originally Posted by matt2426 View Post
    So over the last week or so i lost 3 german rams that i have had for around a year. And im trying to figure out the cause there in a community tank with my discus all the other fish seem to be fine i cleaned one of my aquaclear filters last week like i normally do I cleaned out the sponge with tank water and washed the bio balls in tank water which ive done this way a million times i do this about every 3 weeks and i alternate filters i have two filters set up on my 125 gallon tank and i do water changes 5 times a week 50 percent. I feed 3 times a day i feed als fdbws twice a day and one feeding of pellets or beefheart and at night i drop a few pellets in for my plecos my current stock level is 7 adult discus 20 cardnial tetras 20 rummy nose tetras and 4 l plecos and i did have 3 german rams i did a water test today since ive been losing the rams and all my other levels seemed fine but i have an ammonia reading that was a little over .25ppm any ideas thanks alot
    How long has the tank been set up? Do you have substrate and/or plants?

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    Default Re: am i over feeding ammonia reading

    Quote Originally Posted by fljones3 View Post
    How long has the tank been set up? Do you have substrate and/or plants?
    The tank has been set up for about a year and a half or so i do have some plants anubias and java fern i fertilize daily with small doses of fertilizer and for substrate i use pool filter sand thanks

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    Registered Member Tshethar's Avatar
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    Default Re: am i over feeding ammonia reading

    It could be you got a mini-cycle sort of ammonia spike from your filter cleaning, given that the bio-load was previously balanced and the existing, undisturbed filter might have needed a day or so to compensate for the other one being semi-compromised. I dunno--normally most of us probably have similar practices and this doesn't occur. It may also be possible that you're getting a false positive for ammonia if you're using Prime/Safe and the API test kit. But if not, seems that could have killed them and you may be pushing the biological capacity you have.

    A couple of times I've had a sudden die-off of rummynose after a water change, which I never really understood. It seemed to me that the cause was a difference in water parameters from tap to tank in that case... either a significant temp difference (as my "cold" water here in the summer is 80 degrees, and this was a non-discus tank) or some other issue such as pH or heavy metals or something. Do you age your water? Have any pH swing? Sorry for the losses.

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    Default Re: am i over feeding ammonia reading

    Check your PH, might have crashed. Happened to me recently, went from 6.2 to 4.3 seemingly over night. I only noticed because of the ammonia burns on the fish
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    Default Re: am i over feeding ammonia reading

    Quote Originally Posted by Tshethar View Post
    It could be you got a mini-cycle sort of ammonia spike from your filter cleaning, given that the bio-load was previously balanced and the existing, undisturbed filter might have needed a day or so to compensate for the other one being semi-compromised. I dunno--normally most of us probably have similar practices and this doesn't occur. It may also be possible that you're getting a false positive for ammonia if you're using Prime/Safe and the API test kit. But if not, seems that could have killed them and you may be pushing the biological capacity you have.

    A couple of times I've had a sudden die-off of rummynose after a water change, which I never really understood. It seemed to me that the cause was a difference in water parameters from tap to tank in that case... either a significant temp difference (as my "cold" water here in the summer is 80 degrees, and this was a non-discus tank) or some other issue such as pH or heavy metals or something. Do you age your water? Have any pH swing? Sorry for the losses.

    i was thinking a possible mini cycle but i havent done anything different that what i normally do but possible i guess and no i havent checked out the ph i do age my water and keep it at the same temp as my tank thanks for the reply

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    Default Re: am i over feeding ammonia reading

    Quote Originally Posted by Swedgin View Post
    Check your PH, might have crashed. Happened to me recently, went from 6.2 to 4.3 seemingly over night. I only noticed because of the ammonia burns on the fish
    thanks for the reply ill check it see if there was any kind of change

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    Default Re: am i over feeding ammonia reading

    Do any of you guys add any kind of benifical bacteria like the stuff you buy in the bottle after a filter clean like quick start or something similar to that

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    Default Re: am i over feeding ammonia reading

    I had something similar happen a couple of months ago. Turns out I had ammonia in my tap water. I only do 40% WC now, max.

    Do you use python for WCs?

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    Default Re: am i over feeding ammonia reading

    Quote Originally Posted by matt2426 View Post
    Do any of you guys add any kind of benifical bacteria like the stuff you buy in the bottle after a filter clean like quick start or something similar to that
    If I do a pretty thorough cleaning I do, just to be safe. My sponges are my backup.

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    Default Re: am i over feeding ammonia reading

    Do you de-chlorinate your WC water? It might have been a series of insults, cleaning filters and slightly higher chlorine/chloramine in the WC water resulted in a mini-cycle.

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    Default Re: am i over feeding ammonia reading

    Quote Originally Posted by bossanova View Post
    I had something similar happen a couple of months ago. Turns out I had ammonia in my tap water. I only do 40% WC now, max.

    Do you use python for WCs?
    I use pyton to clean my substrate but use a water pump to change to majority of the water thanks

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    Default Re: am i over feeding ammonia reading

    Quote Originally Posted by fljones3 View Post
    If I do a pretty thorough cleaning I do, just to be safe. My sponges are my backup.
    Im thinking im going to give that a try next time a do do a good filter cleaning maybe that will help save some of the community fish

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    Default Re: am i over feeding ammonia reading

    Quote Originally Posted by JamesW View Post
    Do you de-chlorinate your WC water? It might have been a series of insults, cleaning filters and slightly higher chlorine/chloramine in the WC water resulted in a mini-cycle.
    Yes i do i use prime after every water change and filter cleaning but i'm kinda thinking it was a mini cycle i probally went through i may of over cleaned the filter all my levels are back to normal now but thanks everyone for the replies

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