Bad day in the FO

[Fl_seagull]

I have been having a low level NH4 spike (0.25 ppm) for a few days.

OK, a little amonlock, 50% water change, heave wet skimming, stop feeding, look for anything rotting, etc. Only, found a few snails rotting.

Then I come home after work, the tank is cloudy and NH4 is off the chart. 85% water change, amonlock, changed filter sock, set up for another 85% water change.

Meanwhile, I get shocked by a heater!

Fish are stressed but now swimming normally.

What went wrong?
Recently added 2.5' Zebra Eel -- Large bio-load.
Rearranged tank to accommodate the eel.
Fed tank after disruption. Suspect food ended up in overflows/filter sock.
Suspected a base rock I added may have had added a large organic load.

 

[LRS078]

alot of things went wrong....and alot of your plan of action was part of it.... Your system only had the amount of bacteria to support the fish you had. Whenever there is an excess of bacteria, there is a "bloom" which gives the greyish/white/cloudy tinge to water. This is fairly harmless to fish but looks gross.

Exceeding water changes during this process can retard the small cycle/spike, actually causing the cloudiness to become worse and the amonia to go much longer. Amolock or other amonia binding products do not change the levels that test, thusly still indicating you have high ammonia when you do not. In your case, using the amolock makes the situation worse driving the amonia higher because the system is trying to compensate for the additional bioload.

In the future, use doses of either bio spira (a refridgerated live bacteria culture supplement) or use of a product like stability to aid in creating a flourishable environment for the bacteria. IDeal situation is to use both together to help resolve the issue. Do NOT continue with water changes unless you start to see drastic negative effects from fish. You are only prolonging the agony with present course of action. Search the tank again for any decomposing materials (food, dead fish, corals, etc) and stay away from amolock in the future. (there is no way to tell if amolock is actually working or not)

Hope this helps....let us know how it turns out.

 

[Fl_seagull]

Thanks. I did the massive water change because of obvious fish stress. I will monitor the Nitrite level.

 

[z28pwr]

I would add some Fritz TurboStart to your tank to get some more bacteria in your tank.

I used this stuff when setting up my 380 and it worked great, supposed to be much better then biospira.

http://www.fritzpet.com/