Too Much Food- Ammonia Spike

[anniekins]

Hi all, This is a little lengthy I'm afraid.......I would like a little guidance on the amount of food I need to give my rainbows. To give you the background, I upgraded my tank at the end of last year to a 240L, along with the tank came the stock from the owner had which was nine rainbow fish and one gourami. The fish from my old tank were added to the 240L namely four corries and twelve harlequins.
I have two internal filters running an Eheim from my old tank, a Fluval 4 from the 240L and I have also added an Eheim Pro 3 2180 which was added about five weeks ago. I do a 50% water change weekly but have noticed traces of ammonia (0.25) appearing prior to the scheduled water change.The only reason I can think maybe causing this is too much food added.
As I am more used to small fish I'm wondering if I'm feeding too much as the rainbows always appear to be sooooooo hungry! I feed them once a day, about a teaspoon of spirulna flakes along with a cube of frozen food either bloodworms, daphnia or tubiflex. I also feed a few cooked shelled peas at times in place of the frozen food.I can't think of any other reason for the spikes but don't want to reduce the quantity if they need it as they are sooooooo beautiful Please let me know what you think.

 

[tom130691]

teaspoon of spirulna flakes

seems alot to me but my fish are smaller and there is less but should only feed what they can eat there and then, removing anyleft overs

 

[drobbyb]

Ammonia and rainbows is bad. They are a little more sensitive to it than some other fish. For the time being, you are going to need to test your water daily. If you see an ammonia reading, do a 50% waterchange. Cut your feeding down to just the spirulina flakes every other day, and hold off on the frozen. This is going to reduce the amount of ammonia being produced, and hopefully give your filters time to catch up.

We need to figure out why there is ammonia in your established tank. Your tank is roughly 63 gallons with some decent filtration. You have approximately 75 inches of fish in there. My guess is that you are mildly overstocked. If you removed a few fish, your ammonia will come down to 0 and stay there.

 

[anniekins]

Ammonia and rainbows is bad. They are a little more sensitive to it than some other fish. For the time being, you are going to need to test your water daily. If you see an ammonia reading, do a 50% waterchange. Cut your feeding down to just the spirulina flakes every other day, and hold off on the frozen. This is going to reduce the amount of ammonia being produced, and hopefully give your filters time to catch up.

We need to figure out why there is ammonia in your established tank. Your tank is roughly 63 gallons with some decent filtration. You have approximately 75 inches of fish in there. My guess is that you are mildly overstocked. If you removed a few fish, your ammonia will come down to 0 and stay there.

Will reduce the food straight away and will do the waterchanges as and when necessary.

The overstocking has probably occured from combining the stock from the two tanks. I do not have a spare tank now as I sold my old one when I got the 240L.

I guess it's more frequent water changes for me! I hope the spikes may settle with the reduced food regime but maybe I'm just being optimistic.

Thanks for your advice drobbyb

 

[drobbyb]

Anytime