ammonia and nitrite rising

cyberex1

New Member
My tank finished cycling about a few weeks ago. Ammonia and nitrite was 0 and nitrate was 5. I just put in 3 12" banjar a few days ago and the ammonia is 0.5, the nitrite is 1.0 and the nitrate is 10. Should I use amquel+ to lower these levels or just wait for the filter to take its course. Its 150g and I'm using xp3 filter. Any suggestion?
 

homebrewed

Super Moderator
How did you cycle the tank?

Personally I wouldn't change the filter media. You are going to want to hang onto them for the bacteria. I think that the tank is under going a mini cycle because of the addition of new fish. The tank probably did not have enough seeded bacteria to take on the new bioload.

Dose it with some Prime (if you have) and do some water changes and all should balance out.

Tim
 

cyberex1

New Member
I cycled the tank using a dozen danios. It took about 6 weeks to finish cycling. I just replaced the biochem zorb and microfiltration pad last week, a few days after I put the aros in. I have been changing 15% of the water every other day since i saw the spike in ammonia and nitrite. Also, there is a lot of brown algae growing and I'm cleaning it with every water change. Apparently, the brown algae is from "new tank syndrome", suppose to disappear after 12 weeks.
 

homebrewed

Super Moderator
That'd be it.
The 3 12" Banjars are producing way more waste than the bacteria can handle.

The water will bget back on track with what you're doing.

Do you have any Prime?
Its a great product to use incase of an emergency spike, and is probably one of the better conditioners out there.
 
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