I Had an Ammonia Spike in 4 'Cycled' Fish Tanks! Here's What I Did

Hello Everyone,
I had an ammonia spike in four previously cycled aquariums. Here is what I did to get rid of the ammonia spikes.

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[PrimeTimeAquatics]

Want to become a Prime Timer and see behind the scenes fish room videos? Consider becoming a member:

For the latest in the fish room check us out on Instagram primetime_aquatics

If you want to see all the cool stuff Joanna does with other types of scapes check out her channel!

[Trains-With-Shane]

I really appreciate that you show mishaps and minor emergencies and use them as a training tool on how you recover from them. That kind of knowledge is most useful for beginners in my opinion. The thing about beneficial bacteria and the "cycle" is that you can only tell how well it's working based on information and numbers after the fact and there's little way to predict how it'll behave to adding or removing a bunch of fish. I can certainly see how and why this happened in quarantine tanks since the bio loads are probably changing VERY often and they are likely stocked over the capacity that they would be if they were normally running display tanks.

[James_Hande]

I totally agree Jason! Very important to remove as much ammonia and also nitrites as possible. I'm old school and have not tried nitrifying bacteria in a bottle. I squeeze out old filter media (sponge or fluff) from another cycled tank. Thanks for sharing. 👍

[ivanalovemore]

I added a few guppies to my cycled tank, and woke up to cloudy water. I tested and saw that ammonia and nitritAtes were up. (Zero nitrItes). Followed your advice and did 80% water change and added Fritz-Zyme Turbo 700 and Prime to tank. Thank you!!!

[Glofishkeeping]

Great point. Established only means established for those inhabitants.

[arkurianstormblade]

Great video! I would not be surprised if many people thought they had a nice stable 4-5 year old tank, only for a new introduction of fish to cause spikes.

[jeffhester]

I've used fritz turbostart 700 with a fishless dose of 2ppm ammonia to start new tanks for a couple years now. It's amazing. A huge water change then fritz turbostart immediately cleared a spike for me last year. Great video, thank you for sharing with us. Happy holiday season to all.

[Psalm]

Very timely video for me. Thanks a bunch! I have a fully cycled 55 gallon that I had not put any fish in yet. Was still deciding what I wanted. In the meantime my good friend had a 55 that sprung a leak 😮 She rehomed to me her 14 swordtails and 3 albino corys. I watched it so closely because of the big bio load all of a sudden. It did fine for a couple weeks then sure enough a big ammonia and nitrite spike! Did a 50% water change and it helped. Now they are doing so well and having babies. I finally feel like a real fish keeper now 😅Thanks for your videos.

[BertShackleford]

Excellent information brother.

All of my nano tanks receive a minimum of 70-80% water change every Wednesday.

My issue after having these trouble-free tanks for almost five years now, has to do with this sudden appearance of cyanobacteria in my quarantine tank. I only have three inhabitants currently housed in my QT tank. So naturally this problem has left me perplexed.

Nevertheless, after nearly thirty years in the fishkeeping hobby, I think I may be ready to throw in the towel all together. My heart and mind are simply not in the right place anymore. I used to find these weekly water changes cathartic, almost necessary given my background. Whereas now it seems like a chore.

This became apparent once these weekly water changes started to become monotonous and irksome. It just feels like I merely go through the motions rather than actually enjoying the process and more importantly, the finished product. I cannot recall the last time I sat in front of my tanks purely for enjoyment.

IDK Jason, what do you think brother? Does it sound like it is time for me to leave the hobby?

My wife hates the thought of relinquishing these projects to a total stranger (as do I). Especially after impeccably maintaining these nano tanks after all these years. I do worry about giving my tanks to someone that inevitably destroys the years of stability and progress I have built into these ecosystems, quite literally overnight. Tis a shame that you are not local here in Arizona. I would gladly yield these aquascapes to you and Joanna knowing they would be in highly capable hands.

FWIW, I started this endeavor as a result of all the naysayers that claimed you could not accomplish certain tasks and goals using nano tanks. They presented a challenge and I proved them wrong. I suppose now that I have successfully completed my mission, I may need to find something new. My wife suggested one BIG tank to rule them all rather than several nano tanks. Perhaps...

I surmise I have some tough decisions to make in the near future, but I welcome your thoughts nonetheless.

Stay classy my friend.

[scottmoe]

For those inexperienced this is great info.
For me it is just common sense

[reggie]

Thanks for the information as always. Got me concerned after watching this, so going to test my water now.

[sschario]

Good advice. Thanks for sharing, Jason. Wasn't aware of A.C.C.R. or Turbo Start. 👍

[lizettebusquets]

When I moved from Georgia to Indiana last summer, one of my tanks got a spike. Nothing had changed for the tank (same plants, same fish, filter media as in Georgia). Two days later, a spike. Changed 40%, added FritzZyme 7 but still had a spike two days later. I went to a fellow aquarist in Northern Indiana and got a big, cycled filter cartridge and put it in after a 80% water change. That finally got rid of it.

[wendihamlett]

Thank you! Again nice to see "real world" experience. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!

[dwighterickson]

About a month ago, I walked by one of my 10gal tanks and did not see my guppies (heavily planted, stocked with 6 guppies, 6 Danios and assorted snails). Looking closer I found two dead but there were still four missing. It did not take long to find them, although they were hidden in all the plants. Quick parameter check told me my pH had crashed to below 5 during the night

Did a quick 50% water change (I keep 12 gallons of treated water on hand for just such emergencies), fixed a rushed coral packet for my filter and everything recovered within a day. Monitored for another week. So, yes, I lost all six guppies but the Danios are doing well.

As noted in the video, it's critical to understand when something is amiss in your tanks but even more critical to be able to react to the issue(s) quickly and correctly

[cichlid_kings]

Great advise, and yes it does happen to the best of us. Keep an eye on fish behavior & water clarity. I find that a good size water change before adding multiple fish along with some Fritz complete & Seachem stability keeps things in check. It's usually when the wife wants to impulse buy some fish before I've prepped the tank when I run into issues 🤣

[christopherfassett]

The only thing I would add is I recently upgraded a 16 gal with inert substrate to a 75 gal with Master Soil. I reused all of the filter media, but I wasn't surprised at all when I saw a big 'ole ammonia spike (up to 4 ppm). The first thing I did after testing the ammonia wasn't a water change, I tested pH. My pH hovers around 6.8 naturally, the soil brought it down to 6.1 (and my CO² injection brings it down to 5.1 during the day). At 6.1 (and 76°F) my total ammonia nitrogen is 4 mg/L but my free ammonia was only 0.0028 mg/L. It was completely harmless. During the day it went down even further to 0.0003 mg/L)

So I sat with 4 ppm of ammonia for a good month and I didn't really worry about it. Didn't lose a single fish (Sundadanio goblinus) or shrimp (Crystal Red).

Now, the nitrite portion was a different story, its toxicity is not pH-dependent, the fish suddenly started gasping at the surface when the CO² reached its max. CO² and nitrites both cause the same thing, they lower blood pH converting oxygen-carrying hemaglobin to useless methemoglobin (a condition called methemoglobinemia). I turned the CO² down, added an airstone and some Seachem Prime and then I tested. Ammonia was down to 1 mg/L, nitrites were at 2 mg/L. In my experience, while Fritz TurboStart helps with ammonia it takes some time, particularly in soft water (probably because it has no AOA), but I've seen it clear nitrites in 24 hours and that's exactly what happened here.

At no point did I perform a water change. I also never had cloudy water, since my tank is high light, high CO², high fertilization, what I had was tons of hair algae. When the ammonia went away, the hair algae started turning brown and dying within 24 hours

[AlpacaMade]

Thank you _very_ much for showing this issue and letting us know what product to use. In my case I have been breaking my brain trying to find a product that will neutralize ammonia from the tap. Solving that problem will cut my purchased water bill by 3/4. Cheers👍

[JohnWood-tkge]

I’ve got one going on right now in my grow out tank, the super reds have been very good to me lots of fry added!

[Ishiisan]

Great video👍
When I get a spike like that, I do a big water changes and add box filter from another tank. My box filter is polyfil and smaller size Seachem Matrix. And I use little more than recommended of Fritzyme 7.