Extreme Rise In Ammonia

[alexiooc]

I bought a Juwel Lido 120 about 6 weeks ago, set it up, made sure the water temperature was good, added some old fish water from my small tank and put the filter sponge from my mature tank into my new one. I left it for a few days to acclimatise, (while the fish were in a small tank on my kitchen unit) then added my fish. I know I should have left it a lot longer but I didnt have any room to keep the two fish tanks and i was prepared to do water changes everyday. So after changing 25% of the water nearly every day for about 4-5 weeks I started having readings if nitrite, and my ammonia levels started dropping aswell. Having gone away over the weekend, so no water tests for 3 days, and also no feeding, I tested the water again and the nitrite has dissappeared and the ammonia has rocketed again, and I mean a very dark green colour using the API liquid test kits.

How would this have happened? Has it started the cycle all over again or is it just doing a mini cycle? Have I done anything wrong? (except putting the fish in there too early but it was unavoidable), How can I sort this out once and for all?

Please Help!!!

 

[KISSfn]

Sounds like when you put your mature filter in your new filter and left it for a few days your mature filter didn't get fed and went dormant. You are now in a fish in cycle and should follow the instructions in the link under my tank pic. If your ammonia is high you'll need to do 95% water changes twice a day until ammonia is 0.