[mctroth]

I am having an ammonia problem in my 20g tank. Ammo is at about 5.0+. The tank has been going for about a year with few problems. One of the fish had babies about 2 months ago so it is borderline over populated at the moment but areation is good and we have not had any problems with ammonia since we finished to original cycle. The nitrate and nitrite are both 0. The ph is at 7.0. It does seem that when I do water changes the water seems cloudy. Ive been doing daily changes triing to get it down. I am adding ammon lock but that makes it hard to know if I'm dealing withthe cause since it still registers the ammonia. Help. I've had this problem about a week. Remarkably I have not lost any fish.

[SHUEZQ]

The cloudy water is most likely a biological bloom. This is the good stuff that converts the ammonia to nitrite and eventually nitrate. Every time you do a water change, you are cutting off the cycle that needs to happen. I would keep using the ammo-lock and get an ammonia absorbing resin. Don't do a water change unless the fish look stressed. Keep testing the water to monitor the cycle in its three stages. Somewhere along the line you lost it. I would also remove those babies ASAP--the more fish, the more toxins.

NO ONE CONFUSES ME--I DO IT MYSELF!

[mctroth]

This tank has been going for almost a year with no problems. Is it suddenly going through the cycle again?

[JenLeeWoo]

I recommend checking the water you are changing with. It is possible, if you are using tap water, that your tap water has something in it that is causing an algae bloom, either nitrates or phosphates. Maybe try doing a water change with different water and see if that helps.

Another possibility: you could be accidentally overfeeding. If the babies and other fish aren't able to eat all the food, it can cause an ammonia spike.

______________________________
75 gallon marine aquarium with: 2 Ocellaris clowns, 1 Banggai Cardinalfish, 1 Purple Firefish, 4 Engineer Gobies, 6 Green Chromis.

60 gallon Freshwater aquarium with: 1 golden Angel, 2 Black Knife Ghostfishes, 1 Plecostamus, 2 Harlequins, 1 Golden Algae Eater, 2 White Clouds, 1 Corey Catfish, 3 clown loaches, 8 Mollies.

www.angelfire.com/trek/jenleewoo

[Frank M. Greco]

First thing you need to do is to check your test kit against another. Or bring a water sample to your local LFS and have them test it for you. At 5 ppm, all your fish should be gasping at the surface, if not outright dying. Also, I would expect to see some nitrite. It may simply be that your kit is reading incorrectly.

Ammo-Lock and similar products will provide a false positive reading on some test kits. Make sure the kit you have is able to read properly when these products are added to your water. When did you first add this product, and why?

Also, are sure sure you are getting a zero nitrAte reading?

Frank M. Greco
Professional Aquarist
http://www.frankmgreco.com
http://www.franksaquarium.com