converting BACK to ammonia????

[obsessed]

I have a friend i am having do a fishless cycling, using ammonium chloride and ammonium phosphate before I give her some discus. I seeded the tank for her, and it finally cycled, but then I discovered this massive fluke infestation, so we went back to adding small amounts on ammoniim in the meantime.
then her tank got really cloudy and the ammonia was off the chart!!!!
she did a 80% water change, added nothing else., tested a little detectable ammonia.. 3 days later-cloudy and NH3 off the chart again!!!!
whats going on,
no fish, covered tank, a few snails...... the only thing i can think of is that maybe snails are dying, but she said she vaccuumed the tank with the water change.
I was wondering if there was some flux/conversion between nitrate back to ammonia. I personally doubt it. It seems like I read somewhere that this occurs with nitrate/nitrite at very low levels, but can't really recall.
i posted here to get maximum exposure to the post, feel free to move it.
thanks
Paul

[brewmaster15]

Hi Paul,
whats the pH is the tank. If you went from acidic to alkaline...the ammonium may have converted to ammonia and at high enough levels to be a problem for you... cloudy water indicates a bacterial bloom, maybe an anaerobic condition?

-al

[obsessed]

Hi Al,
while she was cycling well the pH stayed in the 7 range.
when it got cloudy, it had crashed to 4.6.
I told her bring another in tomorrow and we'll look at it. I'll bet it went back down again. our water is pretty soft, 120 micro siemens.
she has a biowheel and a sponge filter. some gravel and live plants. no undergravel flilter. I imagine she has adequate O2.
I just can't figure why her water went from 0.25, or whatever the low count is, to over 8 with nothing added to the tank.

Al, did you get my personal emails last week?
Paul

[brewmaster15]

Hi Paul,
the cycle will go much better if stable in the alkaline range. I would add some crushed coral ,crushed shells, dolomitic limestone to the filter. That will keep the pH in 7 ish range.

On the emails... I lost track of whose turn it was to reply ;) :) . I'll be in latter tonight if you want to call...leave a number where I can reach you if you get the machine.


-al

[obsessed]

I'll give her some calcium carbonate to buffer with, unless someone thinks thats a bad idea. you probably know i have about anything.

i'l call tonight
thanks
Paul