ammonia spike

[smooth_bourbon]

Hi been a super long time since I have been on here .

I am having my first ever ammonia problem. I have a 80 gallon tank with two pengion bio-wheel 330 filters, and a power head. One 10 inch Tiger Oscar, one 7 inch Jack Dempsey, three Albino Cory Cats each over two inches long, five Spotted Cory Cats each about inch and a half, and one evil Red Fire Wall Eel. Wow almost forgot The Beast one leopard spotted pleco.

I know Corys shouldnt be in with cichlids. I have had my cories, and pleco for over five years now tho and they rule the tank. Pretty funny when the Oscar gets attitude the Pleco comes out of his cave and the Oscar tucks down and hides in the corner.

I have had this exact set up, with no substrate just caves and a tube for the Eel. I decided to add some gravel a couple days ago, just for a change. Rinsed it very well and added it carfully and slowly to make sure not to squish anyone. Then the next morning woke up smelling what I thought was cat pee. Come to find out the Ammonia which has always tested zero in my tanks was so out of control it reeked.

Why did it do this I didnt remove anything from my tank, so shouldnt have messed with the bacteria. And am I remembering correctly to treat ammonia with lots of water changes till the nitrites get back in whack?

 

[pseud]

What exactly was the ammonia level? What is it at now?

I would probably have done about a 50% water change immediately, then tested again.

Is it possible you had a little power outage during the night and your filters shut off?

 

[Angel Lady]

I would do a gravel vac also and see if this helps. Have you found any dead fish??This will cause the ammonia to rise. But not enough to smell it. Are they any way the cats could have pead in the tank. I know this sounds crazy but I have seen this done before in one of my tanks. I had to get rid of the tank I was afraid to use it again. This is just a thought I dont know what else to tell you could have happened. I hate when things like this happens.

 

[sarahw20000]

I don't know if this could actually happen but maybe all the fish poo that would normally be free to be sucked straight into the filter has now all got stuck in the gravel?

 

[smooth_bourbon]

I use aquarium pharmaseutical master test kit, and my ammonia test tube was pretty orange so higher then the 7.0 it tests too. I have it down around 4.0 now.

The only fish that is showing signs of shock is the Oscar (he's my litle pansy) everyone else is as active as normal and eating normal.

By the way did I mention I do water changes the old fashion way? Gravel vacumn and 10 gallon rubbermaids. LOL very tired of carrying my water change buckets back and forth.

 

[paulthegreat]

could have been something in the gravel that killed off the benificial bacts. was the gravel still quite wet when you put it in? It could have been the chlorine in the water used to rinse it with. If such was the case you are going to have to go through a new cycle.

 

[smooth_bourbon]

I took out about 10 gallons of water to make it a bit easier to reach the bottom of the tank when adding the gravel. So yes the gravel was wet but I immediatly added back the water with lots of chlorine remover in it, I am a chronic over doser of my jungle chlorine remover.