what happened to my cycled tank ?!?

[zero1870]

alright, i did a 25% water change yesterday. before the change the levels where 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 20 nitrate. Now, a day after the change it's now .50 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 10 nitrate. i am using RO water. Why is my ammonia level up? should i be worried? any suggestions would be helpful as to what caused the levels to rise. what can i do to keep that from happening again.

 

[alyssia]

Did you add anything? LR or a cleanup crew?

 

[zero1870]

not recently. i added clean up crew a few weeks ago, but that shouldn't affect the water now...

 

[alyssia]

Do you think maybe something died and you don't know it? How big is your tank?
I had a totally unexplained ammonia spike a few weeks ago so I know it's frustrating.

 

[glowplug]

how long has the tank been running? are you running a power filter, if so did you might have cleaned the bio too soon or the wrong way

 

[dogstar]

Protein Nitrogen enters into a system mainly as livestock and food. When it breaks down it becomes ammonia.