Ammonia Levels, Test kit, Confusion...HELP!! :(

[sbrock]

I'm starting to pull out my hair here! This is a 20 gallon tank, filtering with a 30 gal filtration system with a flow rate of 200 gallons per hour.
I have had the tank up and running for almost 6 weeks now. Everything looks great but the ammonia levels. They are practically off the charts! My nitrites have been sitting at 0 ppm for over 3 weeks, with my nitrates between 0ppm and 5.0 ppm. PH is 7.6. The ammonia is between 2.5 ppm and 4.0 ppm!

I've also had the water tested numerous times during the cycle at the local fish store.
I do not use strips as they have proven to be less accurate for me in the past. This is a brand new API test kit that costed 35 dollars..

I have had 2 platys in it for a little over 2 weeks.
Unknowingly to me, one of the mickey mouse platys was pregnant.
She layed them and I was only able to find one remaining survivor; whom is chilling out in the breeders net. This little one is 8 days old. (Born 3-2-10) and appears to be doing well and has most definitely grown...

I have been feeding every other day for over 2 weeks now. I do feed the baby fry once a day, but I stand there for 3 minutes and let it eat and then remove all the remaining flakes.
I've done water changes, every other day; have Ammo-Carb in the filter, added live plants. I'm at a loss!
I will not give up, and I will not alter the levels chemically so what should I do now?

[pinetree]

So your tank has been running for 6 weeks, but you've only had fish in it for 2 weeks? What was going on for the 4 weeks prior to that? Did you have different fish in there to cycle with? Were you doing a fishless cycle using ammonia or a prawn or something?

[Zakk]

ammonia at 2.5 to 4 ppm? not good. when did u do your last water change?

[sbrock]

The day before yesterday. Tomorrow I will do another 30%.
The fish overall look okay, They are getting a routine down, coming up to be fed. But I've gotta get this stabilized as I have 1 male and 1 female platy and he is driving her crazy nipping at her. Have already had to do one round of Melafix for some scale damaged caused by the male.
Should I remove and replace my live plant?
Maybe its starting the early stages of rotting and throwing off waste into the tank?
Ahh, i'm just trying to think of why on earth everything else is normal and ammonia is sky high.

[Zakk]

have u checked your tap water?

[ajguzik]

Good advice to eliminate your tap water as a source of ammonia. The plant should be in visibly bad shape to be rotting enough to produce a lot of waste. I had an issue with a pleco eating my plants and creating a ot of waste and subsequent ammonia. Don't know if platys are plant eaters. If so, could be a food and waste source. Check your filter to make sure you are getting good flow across your ammo-carb. Change it every week, or increase the amount in the filter if possible.

[Zakk]

platys are known to peck at plants.....

[pinetree]

I'm suspicious that your tank is just at the beginning of the cycle. That is why I asked what was going on in the tank for the 4 weeks before you added the most recent fish. If the tank has only had fish and/or a source of ammonia for a little over two weeks, then it is just in the first phase of cycling and that is why the ammonia is high. The bacteria hasn't grown enough to convert the ammonia to nitrite. Did you do a fishless cycle before adding the fish?

[sbrock]

It went fishless for 4 weeks. The fish store told me we could try speeding things up by adding beneficial bacteria and a couple dollar fish. So I got the 2 platys.. I've seen one of the platys peck at the plant, so that could be a possibility.

Theres a lot going on at my house today, so this evening once things slow down, i'll test the tap water and post the results here.

[pinetree]

What were you using as your ammonia source in the 4 weeks before you added the platies and how many ppm were you keeping the ammonia at?

Maybe adding the fish was a much higher amount of ammonia than you were keeping it at prior and it started to cycle again?

[sbrock]

Ok, so I finally got around to testing our water source.
The results for that are;
Ammonia- 0 ppm
Nitrite- 0 ppm
Nitrate- ((surprisingly to me)) 0 ppm-5.0 ppm
PH- 6.4

I also tested the ammonia in the tank again and it showed a tiny drop to between 2.0 ppm and 3.0 ppm.
I'm doing a partial water change tonight, how much should I do? This is a 20 gallon tank.
I'm beginning to think that its still just cycling.
If that is the case, how much longer til I can add more fish? and when I add more fish; is this going to happen all over again?


and for an answer to "Pinetree"
Tis been a battle to lower the ammonia since day 3 LOL.
Setting up the tank, I only used water conditioner and bacteria supplement. I have been adding weekly bacteria supplement, all 6 weeks of running and also adding more in with the partial water changes.
The only things from a bottle that have gone into the tank at all have been;
Water Conditioner, Aquarium Salt, Beneficial Bacteria, Melafix (for a nipped fin) and Ammo-Carb
Other than those things I've let this tank do its own thing.

[Mikaila31]

A bacterial supplement will have very little effect without a ammonia source, so not much was happening w/ your tank for the first few weeks. Now that there are fish things should start to progress.

With a ammonia level of 2-3 you really need to do a 80% water change IMO, if not more. Perferable tomorrow you should follow up with another 50% water change then test and see where things are at. .25ppm of ammonia is the level you should be at for a fish-in cycle, the levels you are at right now will kill the fish eventually.

edit: You should get rid of that ammo-carb stuff. Ammonia absorbing chemicals will only prolong a cycle. Besides they fill up fast and can release ammonia depending on what else is in the water.

[sbrock]

Ok, So I just did a 70-80% water change. It was actually pretty filthy in there, I'm thinking its because of the female laying the fry a little over a week ago.
So I cleaned the gravel pretty good, removed the live plant that showed obvious signs of decay this morning, and removed the ammo-carb. Will do another 50% water change tomorrow.
How long after the water change tomorrow should I wait, to test the water again?

[pinetree]

Well, most people would consider me overzealous, but when I've been cycling a tank with fish in it, I test it daily. After the tank is done cycling I usually test once every week or two.

As for the cycle, the weeks you didn't have any fish or ammonia in the tank likely didn't help your cycle at all, so it's all been fresh since you added the fish. I would just keep doing what you're doing and keep up the water changes, go light on the feeding (less waste) to keep the ammonia and nitrite low until the cycle is complete and stable.

My tap water has ~5ppm nitrate in it, too. Sadly, I don't think it's that unusual anymore due to farm runoff and such.