am i over feeding ammonia reading

[matt2426]

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

[fljones3]

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?

[matt2426]

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

[Tshethar]

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.

[Swedgin]

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

[matt2426]

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

[matt2426]

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

[matt2426]

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

[bossanova]

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?

[fljones3]

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.

[JamesW]

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.

[matt2426]

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

[matt2426]

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

[matt2426]

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