Ammonia Levels, Juwal Cirax And Plants

[Philfarmer]

Juwal Cirax filter media

I have a juwal Rio 180 litre tank with original internal bioflow 3.0 filter
With
6 neon tetras
4 cherry barbs
4 red balloon platys
4 dwarf gourami
3 Madagascar rainbows
3 corydoras
1 long finned fighter
2 neon swordtails
5 harlequin rasbora

Tank is six weeks old on Monday
I've had ammonia and nitrite spikes
So I'm pretty sure I've had a cycle
Since I've added the neon swordtails last Sunday and the harlequin rasbora on Tuesday I've noticed ammonia start to creep back in

Due to this over the last few days I've been adding some live plants ( had artificial ones up from start up until last couple of days) to try and help improve the cycle

Today in desperation to try and help I've done another water change and used atm paradigm water conditioner along with atm colony and also bought a Cirax optional extra filter media

Can anyone give any comments on the Cirax and if this will help

Or any comments on the atm colony

Also any over tips on getting the ammonia back down to zero would be nice

Thanks in advance

 

[Akasha72]

Hi and

 to the forum. All the cirax is is ceramic noodles (if memory serves me correctly, I've always run Juwel tanks but I've removed the internals in favour of external filters). Ceramic noodles are great for harbouring beneficial bacteria - but so are sponges. 
 
What appears to be happening is you are in a fish-in cycle. The filter will have cycled for the original fish that you had and by adding more fish you've increased the load on the bacteria and so you've seen ammonia and nitrite spikes - this what I'd expect to see from a filter still in it's infancy. It takes time for a filter to be cycled enough to start adding extra load without seeing spikes.
 
The best way to deal with what you are seeing is to keep doing water changes to bring the ammonia and nitrite under control and don't put the filter under any more strain by adding more fish. 
 
Looking at your stock list I wouldn't add any more fish - apart from upping the cory number as 3 isn't ideal. From what I can see of your stock from the top/mid level your about fully stocked now.
 
Can I ask what type of cories you have? 

 

[the_lock_man]

Hi, I think Akasha has given some good pointers there, regarding why you are seeing ammonia readings after having added some fish.
 
My advice to you would be to rationalise your stocking somewhat. Akasha mentioned increasing the numbers of cories. The reason she said this is that cories are a shoaling species. In the wild they live in massive groups, often 100s and sometimes 1000s in a group. They do so for the old "safety in numbers" reason. Because there are only 3 of them, they don't feel safe, they feel seriously stressed. And that stress lowers their immune system, and they are more likely to contract an infection. You and I both know that there are no predators in the tank with them, but they don't. It's generally agreed that they start to lose count at about 6, so from 6 or more, they just assume they're in a decent size group, and start to feel happier.
 
So, yes upping the cories to 6 would, on the face of it, be a good idea.
 
You just knew there was a "but" coming, didn't you?
 
There is.
 
But, the same applies to the cherry barbs, the madagascan rainbowfish and the harlequins (and the neon tetra as well, which you do have 6 of). You don't have space to increase the numbers of all of those fish. If you were to increase all those numbers, you would place a huge strain on the filtration bacteria, and they may not be able to cope with all the ammonia produced by the fish. Even if they did, you would also find that your fish would be stressed because of the sheer numbers - can you imagine your stress levels if you were forced to live on the Tube at rush-hour, 24 hours a day? And stressed fish produce more ammonia than unstressed fish. And of course, all that stress again would lower their immune systems.
 
There are 2 other potential issues.
 
First, the dwarf gouramis - if you have more than one male, they will fight - if you have 1 male and 3 females, you'll probably be OK.
 
Except that they will fight with the fighter. The two species are "conspecific", ie you can't keep them in the same tank. They occupy the same area of the tank and won't ignore each other.
 
So, my advice to you is to decide which species are your priority, up the numbers of the shoaling species, and rehome the species that you don't want. Given that it's a relatively new tank, you would hopefully find that your LFS will allow you to return the ones you don't want, and swap them for the increased numbers that you do want - or at least as part credit.
 
Hope this helps.

 

[Byron]

I agree with other members.  And I strongly suggest adjusting the mix of fish as lock_man has mentioned.
 
Byron.