Ammonia nightmare

[reeferatheart]

I spent 2 yrs helping to maintain a friend's 90 gallon salt tank, from start-up on. I made the assumption that I was experienced enough to handle a 30 gallon tank of my own. It seems I may have assumed wrong.
My water cycled for 79 days before the word fish even entered my mind. My levels finally stablized & remained excellent for 3 weeks before I added a maroon clown, a saddleback clown and a cardinal. I introduced them singly, slowly, darkly & correctly. They all ate in the evening & seemed fine. The cardinal died the next day & neither of the remaining two would eat. I fished out the uneaten food & expired fish & checked my levels. I was horrified to see that my ammonia had skyrocketed from zero to 2.3 overnight. My other levels were unchanged, including my PH.
No matter what I do my ammonia will not decrease. I've done three 20% water changes using premium bottled water, used cycle, scrubbed the tank from top to bottom twice. The ammonia will not go down & only 1 fish will eat. The other is probably on his last legs. All my other levels still say everything is fine. It's been 7 days now. Why is my ammonia so high and what can I do about it?
Thanks......

 

[b_ball12_99]

Welcome to the board! We need to know what your filter system is. Did you add all 3 fish at once? If so you might have upset your bioload and are cycling again.

 

[mr.marine]

what kind of filter media do you u have???
if you do not have a good bio-filter you will not have a place for helpful bacteria to grow. i can only suggest one temporary solution. i live in canad but u must have this in the states too! its called AMMO-LOCK it doesnt wipe out the amonia but coounter acts it to bring it back down to zero. if ur ammo rises after seven days from the firsts dose you are doing something wrong. the product is by a company called AQUARIUM PHARMACEUTICALS> they are very good. hope it helps.
get back to us!

 

[dindi]

Did you have a new addition such as an anemone? If so...well we are talking POISON to your tank, I did the same but with no ammonia, nitrite or nitrate increase. I was told to remove 50% of my water and change all charcol filter medium and wash any other medium. Can anyone here help?

 

[jacrmill]

changing your filter media is one of the last things you want to do. that is a big place for what little beneficial bacteria you have to grow. the problem is that you probably added too many fish. how did you cycle your tank? what did you use to supply the ammonia during the cycle? did you introduce all these fish in less than a day? in a new setup like that you should add 1 fish and test your water to make sure you dont have any ammonia or nitrites. then after not having any ammonia for about 7-10 days you can add your second fish. my GUESS is that you added too many fish too fast and your biofilter couldnt keep up. this caused you to get an ammonia spike and could kill your fish. if i were you id try to take back all the fish except for one, preferablly a clown, since they are one of the hardiest species of fish. id also recommend doing some pretty regular water changes until you get your ammonia lowered. this will make your recycle go alot longer than it would normally, but should help to save your fish.

 

[reeferatheart]

Originally posted by jacrmill:
<STRONG>changing your filter media is one of the last things you want to do. that is a big place for what little beneficial bacteria you have to grow. the problem is that you probably added too many fish. how did you cycle your tank? what did you use to supply the ammonia during the cycle? did you introduce all these fish in less than a day? in a new setup like that you should add 1 fish and test your water to make sure you dont have any ammonia or nitrites. then after not having any ammonia for about 7-10 days you can add your second fish. my GUESS is that you added too many fish too fast and your biofilter couldnt keep up. this caused you to get an ammonia spike and could kill your fish. if i were you id try to take back all the fish except for one, preferablly a clown, since they are one of the hardiest species of fish. id also recommend doing some pretty regular water changes until you get your ammonia lowered. this will make your recycle go alot longer than it would normally, but should help to save your fish.</STRONG>
Makes sense. I could've just overloaded the poor bio-filter. Thank you for such a detailed explanation of how & why this could've happened. I'll keep up the frequent water changes & continue testing on a daily basis. The 2 fish I have (clowns) are eating again & I see no sign of fin deterioration at this point. I'll keep a close eye on them, as always. The tank is continuing to grow large amounts of green algae. I used a mix of crushed coral & sand to cycle the tank originally.
Thanks again~~ I really appreciate the help!