I cycled my 40 gallon tank for my gouramis for a period of 6 weeks. A couple days ago I looked at them they were almost a pale white and lingering at the bottom of the tank only to raise up and gasp for air when needed. What could cause my tank (that is cycled) to have so much ammonia in it? I have an adequate filter and pump, the filter I replace whenever it gets dirty like I was told to. The tank is pretty much algae free with only some algae on a couple of small shells. I treated the tank and my fish have returned to their beautiful blue color and the blood in their fins is now gone, but I'm just curious. I know they aren't stressed out because they have two large caves to hide in and lots of plants in one area of the tank.
you mentioned everything but water changes ... ammonia is usually present when there are not enough water changes ... different fish require different changes ... like most of my tanks i do a 10-20 percent water change weekly but with my puffer tank i do 50 percent ... you should find out what changes your fish need to be healthy ... also ... changing the cartridge when dirty, how often is that??? the cartridge should be taken out weekly during water changes, shaken in some siphoned off tank water and put back in ... the filter cartridge contains a lot of the beneficial bacteria and does not need to be replaced until it is falling apart ... i have one in a tank that has been in there 9 months and is still perfectly fine ... if you change that cartridge too often, you are taking out the beneficial bacteria and could be triggering mini cycles which may result in ammonia ... if it were my tank i would do a big water change today and daily smaller changes until 0 ammonia ...
Ammonia spikes are caused from serious overcrowding, overfeeding, or the destruction of the beneficial bacterial colonies in your filter. Exactly how many gouramis do you have? How large are they? How much and how often do you feed? What type of filter do you have?
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com If you are changing all of your filter media, you are removing all of your beneficial bacteria, which can cause an ammonia spike. If your filter is a kind with a carbon cartridge, only change the carbon cartridge out - never change any other media , it should only ever be rinsed in old aquarium water occasionally.
could be because of fish waste and over feeding.
