ammonia problems?

[tara]

I have a 18 inch tank that has been cycled for 6 months, it had 7 goldfish in there i took them out 5 weeks ago, so there is nothing in the tank except sand, 1 plant, sml hand on filter and 2 large smooth rocks now the tank is reading ammonia 0.25, i have been doing weekly water changes with the water from my 3ft cycled tank but still the ammonia remains. What have i done wrong? or what am i doing wrong? Is it because there is nothing in the tank? if so how do i fix the problem? Many Thanks.

 

[MRIGUY]

Well the first thing I would check is that you are not changing the water in the small tank with Ammonia heavy water from the biger tank. Just because it has been cycled does not mean it cannot spike Ammonia, Nitrite, or Nitrate (in that order). You say the tank was cycled. Did you then add the 6 goldfish all at once from the 18" to the 36" tank? That could easily cause a spike in the water that you are then taking to the little tank. Additionally, what else is in the big tank? You say cycled but cycled with what source of Ammonia? If you did not have a source in the tank (ie, a fish) you had an aged tank vs a cycled tank and that is quite different.

Secondly, The ammonia could have been tremendously high to begin with as goldfish are notorious polluters of any water they are in and 6 in an 18in tank could be quite a high bio-load. How big are they, what type etc.

Lets explore this more and I'll bet we can solve the problem.

For now, water changes should be done with aged and airated water (24 hrs with an air stone) clean water. The only time you want to take from one mature tank is to start the cycling process for a new one and that should be a one time deal.

 

[tara]

ok let's explore

My 3 ft tank has 4 axies in there, the fish i gave to a friend, when i took them out of the small tank the readings were all 0. The readings in my big tank are......ph 6.6 ammonia 0 , nitrite 0, nitrate 40, water temp 19 c . So i wll stop using the big tank water and do the small water changes. Anything else i should be doing? Thank you

 

[kapo]

Tara

As the small, 18", tank has nothing in it and has an ammonia reading of 0.25, I would just leave it, and not do any waterchanges and just test every few days and see what the readings are. Your small tank may very well be going through a minicycle for some reason. If there are no animals/fish in it I can't see the point of doing waterchanges unless you intend adding one.

What do you intend using this small one for?

 

[MRIGUY]

I have to agree that if the tank is sitting with nothing in it there is no need for water changes. Additionally, just leaving it sit for a few months with no bio-load will not maintain the cycled state. Just as cycling is a gradual process where nitrifying bacteria colonize the filter to consume waste, the absence of "waste" will have the reverse effect. With no Ammonia etc. the bacteria will slowly die off and in six month you will be back to the beginning (essentially). Adding life at that time will beging the process anew but it will still take time for the bacteria the repopulate. If unused, I recomment you break it down, wash and dry everything, bag it, and send it to the shed.

 

[tara]

hosp tank.

HI Kapo, and MRIGUY i am going to use the small tank as a recovery tank, but i can't use it at the moment due to the ammonia being present. Snowhite has a badly bitten leg so i want to put her in there on her own to recover, but i don't want her to become ill due to poor water quality, what should be my next step? Thankyou.

 

[MRIGUY]

If this is for an isolation tank it should be taken apart and cleaned thoroughly. The tank should then be filled with enough water to cover the animal and nothing else. The recovery tank needs to be very clean.

When I have a quarantine tank running I use a small aquarium and keep a 30 Gallon rubbermaid container filled with water next to it. The 30g has an airstone in it and a canister filter running carbon and ammocarb. I do a 50% water change on the quarantine tank daily with this water and keep replacing the water I use with tap water. They are both the same temp and since the 30g is airated and filtered I know there is no chloring / chloramine etc. I do not treat the water with anything.

 

[tara]

will do

Thanks MRIGUY i will do that and just add enough water to cover her, Thankyou. Regards Tara.

 

[MRIGUY]

You're welcome. Please remember to keep us posted. After all, we could be full of **** and what we recommend may not work at all. Nah! You'll be fine.