New Tank...cycled...or So I Thought.

[Ashetto24]

Hi all - I have a 20 gallon tank that was cycled 3 weeks ago. Even after adding more fish (7 baby tiger barbs) all levels of ammonia and nitrite were reading zero. I continued to test this each day until about a week ago I was testing every 3-4 days just to be on the safe side.

Well, I tested my levels last night and surprise...a reading of .25ppm of ammonia. I was thoroughly confused as I had to rehome a Tiger Barb the other day due to extreme aggressiveness so I am down a fish, and the BN pleco I bought at the lfs died yesterday as well (that is another story).

I removed the BN almost within an hour or two of him dying (when I found out). Also, on Sunday I ended up removing about half of my java moss since it was getting too crazy and the fish were limited with swimming space. I am down to two amazon sword plants and 3 little handlfuls of the moss. Do you think removing half of the java moss could have sent my ammonia levels up a bit? Oh and BTW - I did a 25% water change.

Any thoughts?

 

[doresy]

Back in the early days if I ever got the odd reading for ammonia or nitrite I just did a good water change and not feed for 2-3 days and things quickly got back on track

 

[Monty-2010]

Trry doing daily 10% water changes till the amonia reads 0

 

[waterdrop]

Agree, any sort of water changes are your friend when you get a blip in your usual readings.

WD
ps. a tip of the hat to dorsey who was one of the many nice members who helped me when I first arrived at TFF