Strange cycle

[chknjetski]

I have a 29 G that is testing at the following:

ammonia - .50 ppm
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 30 ppm

Is there something funny happening here?I thought it was supposed to go ammonia --> nitrite --> nitrate. Perhaps I somehow killed off bacteria 1?



FYI - 4 guppy females, slightly inactive and not eating well, about 15 guppy fry, all going wild as they should. I also had a bit of a brown algae bloom recently. Doing regular water changes, about 20-25% weekly.

[emc7]

You can get ammonia is you kill off the ammonia-eaters or if you feed more than they have been accustomed to eating or if your filter slows down because it is clogging.

If the fry are new and/or growing you will naturally feed more, up the water changes and if you used something like Stability, add another dose. Also check your tap before and after dechlor as sometimes ammonia comes from there.

[weedkiller]

how long has it been cycling?
whats the nitrates of your source, is never usually 0 unless you are using R.O water

[emc7]

my source has 0 nitrate. Not RO, but rainwater stored in a lake, close enough. But yes, check the source for nitrate, too. If it didn't climb in the tank its not "cycled". Also, did you change any filter media? Throw out the cartridge, throw out the bacteria.

[chknjetski]

I have not tested my source water, will do today. I don't think that is a problem because I have other established tanks where things are going smoothly. But I'll check anyway.

It has been cycling for about a month, and I have not changed the filter at all. The flow from the filter seems to be pretty strong so I'm doubting there is a flow problem.

While vacuuming out gravel I found a decomposing fry. Perhaps there are others. You know how hard it can be to keep track of those little suckers.


Thanks for the help!

[graceful.04]

Thats definitely it then. A dead fish will produce a huge ammonia spike if it's not found immediately, even if it is small.

[chknjetski]

Update:

Tested my tap. Ammonia came in at .50 ppm(!), nitrates and nitrites at 0, pH at 8.2 (tank usually tests at 7.8). I am going to re-test my tap on another day to check this out.

Quite the puzzle I have on my hands!

[chknjetski]

Just thought about it. I use Prime before putting H2O in the tank so that should actually take care of the ammonia. Right?

[mousey]

It will make it non toxic but it will still show up as being there.
Your biological filter should eat it up within 24 hours.

[weedkiller]

a small amount shouldn't affect anything, the bacteria should eat the ammonia anyway..
if your that concerned about your tap go R.O/tap mix

[TETRAGUY]

I have a 40 gallon with a sunsun canister filter has been going for almost 2 months and all of a sudden I have gotten a bead out break of what looks like a brown colored algae does anybody now how to get rid of it?

[weedkiller]

nitrates level?
if your nitrates are high try and reduce them and algae will be a lot less, I use seachem matrix to lower nitrates and as a bio filter, works great