High Ammonia/ Help !

[johanna13]

One of my 29 gal Betta tanks has high ammonia.
yesterday I did almost a full 100% water change. I vacuumed the gravel and refilled the tank with more fresh water and keep on vacuuming until the water came out clean.
I then filled the tank and added some "Prime" and "Stress coat" and some aquarium salt.
I checked the water this morning and its reading High ammonia again ! its a med to dark green !
How is this possible? I have my beta fish in a different tank until I can get this ammonia down.. Help !!!!

[BettaQi]

Did you test your tap water?

Maybe the ammonia is there?

Also chloracne will test as ammonia.

[BettaQi]

What else is in your tank? Plants? If a plant is rotting or you have organic substrate like Miracle Gro that can create an ammonia spike.

[Oldfishlady]

It could be a false reading from the Prime-what is your nitrate reading and pH....

Any live plants and type of filter-also did you do anything with the filter media with the mass vacuuming....

You can safely remove all the water and not hurt the cycle-however, if you move things around to vacuum, over vacuum, clean walls and filter media all at the same time you can cause a mini cycle of sorts.

What are the numbers on your source water and what type of testing product are you using.

How long has the tank been set up-numbers before the water changes-for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and total stocking....

Why are you using aquarium salt????

[johanna13]

Please tell me where the link to pots a reply is... I only see Quick reply"

[johanna13]

I think this is the reply button??I had a Pleco and it destroyed my tank water.It also grew huge !( who knew!!)
So about 3 weeks ago I cleaned out the whole tank and started over.
Because I had baby Betas the food was always going to the bottom so I had a lot of build up.
I use the API test tubes to test.
I have only silk plants in this tank and one beta fish.( no other fish).
My water is well water and I have tested it and It does not have Ammonia.
I also have a 55 gal tank with a male & female in it and that water is fine.
My other 29 gal tank is fine also.

I did buy a few algae eaters and a few catfish last week. I added a few to each tank. but now have removed all the fish from this tank and will only put back my one baby beta when the water is safe.
I used the ammonia salt because another site I use to go to said it was good to use a small amount.

[Oldfishlady]

What are all the numbers for-ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH of both the tank and well water...

Long term salt is not recommended with Bettas.

[johanna13]

[LittleBettaFish]

When you say you cleaned out everything did you also clean out your filter/filter media with something like tapwater?

Going by your very low looking pH level, I would say all that ammonia is mostly ammonium. The very low pH is probably what is hindering the cycling process as the bacteria that processes ammonia does not like a pH that is too acidic (in this case under 7 which yours looks like it is around 6 or so).

Your tapwater also looks to have a very low pH. I would normally recommend using crushed coral in the filter to bump up the KH value and subsequently the pH to get your cycle moving along again. However, if you bumped up the pH while you were getting those readings, essentially all that ammonium would convert to the more toxic form of ammonia.

Algae eaters and cat fish are ringing warning bells for me. Do you know what exact species they are? You say they aren't in there anymore, but unless you got something like otocinclus and corydoras they might also grow too big for the size of your tank.

[johanna13]

Ok I'm still a newbie at all this... so what do you mean by my filter media?
The filter on this tank is a top fin 60. Its a double filter with water coming out both sides. it was the original filter that came with my 55 gal tank..

I took out the filter cartridge inserts , I didn't replace them but swished them around in the water that I just vacuumed out of the tank and then put them back in..
there kinda falling apart so Ill have to get new filter cartridges soon.
Could the high ammonia be due to the fact that I need new filter cartridges ?

what do you mean by:

I would normally recommend using crushed coral in the filter to bump up the KH value and subsequently the pH to get your cycle moving along again. However, if you bumped up the pH while you were getting those readings, essentially all that ammonium would convert to the more toxic form of ammonia.

I have no idea what KH value is.

I have no idea what kind of cat fish they are.. I will try to get a picture of them and post it.

This is where I get very confused about the filter media. I was told to not replace the filter cartridges because that's where all the good bacteria is. but the cartridges are falling apart ..