Combined Tanks And Now Ammonia Levels Are High. What Did I Do Wrong?

[N0body Of The Goat]

Simply speaking, moving old tank water to a new tank just means you can safely net fish from the old and plop them straight into the new without acclimitisation, because the water chemistry will be essentially the same.
 
However, the transferred water will have relatively little established bacteria in it, those colonies will be within the old tank's filter and over all the surfaces (glass, sand, bogwood, plants etc.). Just moving the filter media over does not guarantee the new tank will not experience ammonia/nitrite spikes, it will certainly help, but the new tank's bacterial colonies may still to play catchup for a while.
 
What are the nitrite readings?
 
It sounds like you used a different filter in the new tank, perhaps bought second hand with the tank. Can you not use both old tank filters together in the new bigger tank?
 
Can you move over all the old substrate and furniture to the new tank?
 
Ammo-lock type products do not permanently detoxify ammonia, for instance excess (upto 5x standard dose) Seachem Prime will only detoxify levels of ammonia and nitrite for upto 24 hours.
 
I think at this point, the sooner you can do a massive water change in the 90-95% ballpark with similar water, the better. It sounds as if the new tank "system" is far too immature for an ammo-lock type product to be the solution (albeit it would help), I suspect you are going to be having spikes for days to come and may need further big water changes.

 

[bristlenoseitplecoman]

I do not own an aqueon filter but its a Tetrafin. try to keep teh ammonia levels as low as you can. It will not completely disappear until the bacteria muchure but it will keep your fish safe until then. I wish you the best of luck.

 

[Starletta]

Thank you everyone for your help!!    My fish thank you too!! 
I did a water change the night I first asked for help, along with putting in the old gravel and putting an old cartridge in the water.  Someone suggested wringing the old cartridge next to the intake tube, which I did. But out of desperation, I propped the old cartridge up next to the intake tube.  I already had an old cartridge in the holder.
 
I did a 50 percent water change yesterday.  Checked the Ammonia levels just now using the API kit and they have dropped between 0 ppm and 0.25 ppm.     Boy, I did learn a lot, but sadly not in time for the two fish that died.     It's amazing how attached you get to them.
 
I put my Bamboo Shrimp (whom seemed on the brink of dying), Mr. Shrimpett, back into the tank yesterday as he seemed a bit better, but he is hiding now. Perhaps he senses his weakness and is afraid of being eaten by the other fish?  Normally he hangs around all over the place. 
 
Since the Ammonia levels are pretty close to normal, would you do another change?  The fish do not seem stressed at all.
Or test the levels tonight and do a change if they are still the same?  
 
Again, thank you so much!

 

[snazy]

The fish may survive that ammonia, but the shrimp could be in danger so you can do another water change if you fancy it. Hopefully the filters will manage now but I'd do water changes for several days in a row just in case. Even very low levels can stress the fish, lead to disease and you don't want to deal with that stuff additionally.

 

[Starletta]

Snazzy,  love  your tank set up....  Is that real wood?  I've seen the fake wood at my pet supply store, but it looks so realistic. 
It's a very pretty set up, yet simple looking.  Real plants?    I have a lot of bigger rocks, and small decorations, and would like to switch to something like yours - Pretty, yet simple.
 
Did another water change last night as the Ammonia level is still between 0 ppm and 0.25 ppm. Haven't checked the levels this morning yet.   Mr. Shrimpett is doing much better...        Even though I unintentionally killed two ,  It's a nice feeling to bring back one that looked so close to death.

 

[snazy]

Snazzy, love your tank set up.... Is that real wood? I've seen the fake wood at my pet supply store, but it looks so realistic.

 
Yes, it's driftwood of some kind. Bought it from a LFS that closed down. It's made of several pieces but no silicone or anything. It's holding down together for a year and a half so far. I love combining wood pieces.
 
My favourite plants-Anubias There are all types of it, massive ones, small ones and even very tiny anubias, different leave shapes too and even different leaf colour for example anubias barteri var. nana comes in dark green and gold variety.  It grows best if you put it between big pebbles, with the rhizome upright, bottom of it touching the substrate, but not burried as the rhizome will rot, but the roots will grow in the substrate instead. This it still benefits from the natural ferts that will eventually develop in the substrate. Or if you have lava rock, it really loves it because it contains several minerals, also rich on iron.  It also obviously grows fine attached to wood as well, however it will rely on ferts in the water column and it doesn't always do as good. Needs low lighting too.
Another good one is java fern, there are also several leaf types of it, narrow leaf, wider leaf, etc..
And of course you can put moss on the wood using some black cotton thread. Unfortunately my pleco loves munching on moss and just tears it off.
 
Then you can combine with some other plants like vallis, aponogeton crispus, cryptocorynes, amazon sword, etc...All should do well in low light and none need trimming or any major attention and for the most part will grow in non-CO2, non-fertilized tank. These would love some fert tabs in the substrate though every few months, depending on the tabs.

 

[bristlenoseitplecoman]

My LFS has African driftwood. really expensive but beautiful.

 

[Noahsfish]

That an all anubias tank? Wow nice, never seen that before! Have you ever tries growing moss on your dw, or is that not your thing? Oh and how are the fish doing starletta?

 

[snazy]

I did grow moss in the beginning, but as I said my common pleco would munch on it, then it would all go into the filters and powerhead, so I gave up. But it grew well while I had it and looked lovely. There are still bunches of it around the anubias roots and such that got caught and grew there but it isn't very visible. I just stripped some actually for my other tank.

 

[Starletta]

That an all anubias tank? Wow nice, never seen that before! Have you ever tries growing moss on your dw, or is that not your thing? Oh and how are the fish doing starletta?
 

The Ammonia keeps spiking despite the one day of lower results.  So, I've been doing water changes daily....  Just can't wait for the day I get a Zero reading....