# High Ammonia / Low PH / No Nitrites or Nitrates. Need Help



## njxrinzler (Mar 21, 2015)

Hey guys. I have a 75 gallon tank that has been operating for like 10 months. Currently has 1 electric blue jack dempsey, 2 bolivian rams, 1 tetra, 1 rainbow fish, 1 angel fish, 1 gourami, 1 algae eater, and 4 small cory catfish. It came with my house and was a mess, so I cleaned the hell out of it and started the cycle over. I did a fish in cycle since I was new to the hobby and didn't know much about aquarium keeping. I've always had trouble with high ammonia ranging anywhere from 2-8 and kept up with regular water changes. A couple weeks ago, not knowing how to properly clean a filter (I do now), I cleaned my eheim canister filter with tap water, most likely killing all the beneficial bacteria. I have been doing frequent 25% water changes. Just purchased an api master test kit and my ammonia is between 2ppm and 4ppm now, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates, and my ph is 6. My tap water's ph is 7.6. I purchased some tetra safe start and was going to throw that into the filters bio media because I heard it is great for aiding in a cycle, should I do that to kick start the cycle? I use Prime for tap water conditioner.

I have read that you can't use prime for 7-14 days after using tetra safe start or it will kill the bacteria as well as you can't use tetra safe start until 24 hours after using Prime.

I also read that in order for a cycle you need a higher PH than what I have which is 6.

Should I just go and put the tetra safe start bacteria in my filter media and let it go for a week or two before doing water changes? Or should I do daily water changes until my PH rises, and then do the tetra safe start?

I also just purchased an Eheim quick vac to start getting the gravel cleaner, because I know that adds to the ammonia. When I do water changes I siphon the gravel already a bit, but not that much.


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## Yorg (Jan 4, 2015)

Hi njxrinzler:

Yes, cleaning the media with tap water likely wiped out much of your nitrifying bacteria. Since you have fish in the tank, I would add the SafeStart right away to begin reestablishing the bacteria colonies.

You should continue to use the Prime as it will help protect your fishes from ammonia poisoning (and later, nitrite poisoning) while the cycle reestablishes. Yes, I'd recommend that you hold off on water changes for a bit after adding the SafeStart so that the bacteria can have a chance to colonize the media and other surfaces in the tank.

The low ph is not good for the establishment of beneficial bacteria, but at this stage it probably isn't a good idea to try to buffer the water, with everything else you have going on. One thing you might consider is temporarily adding some additional aeration to the tank; it helps the bacteria.

-Yorg



njxrinzler said:


> Hey guys. I have a 75 gallon tank that has been operating for like 10 months. Currently has 1 electric blue jack dempsey, 2 bolivian rams, 1 tetra, 1 rainbow fish, 1 angel fish, 1 gourami, 1 algae eater, and 4 small cory catfish. It came with my house and was a mess, so I cleaned the hell out of it and started the cycle over. I did a fish in cycle since I was new to the hobby and didn't know much about aquarium keeping. I've always had trouble with high ammonia ranging anywhere from 2-8 and kept up with regular water changes. A couple weeks ago, not knowing how to properly clean a filter (I do now), I cleaned my eheim canister filter with tap water, most likely killing all the beneficial bacteria. I have been doing frequent 25% water changes. Just purchased an api master test kit and my ammonia is between 2ppm and 4ppm now, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates, and my ph is 6. My tap water's ph is 7.6. I purchased some tetra safe start and was going to throw that into the filters bio media because I heard it is great for aiding in a cycle, should I do that to kick start the cycle? I use Prime for tap water conditioner.
> 
> I have read that you can't use prime for 7-14 days after using tetra safe start or it will kill the bacteria as well as you can't use tetra safe start until 24 hours after using Prime.
> 
> ...


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## Arthur7 (Feb 22, 2013)

If the nitrogen cycle does not work, they have 2 options. 1. make the cycle again by Sticky. 2. they inoculate the aquarium from a well-current pool with used water, gravel and filter material. Both take some time. But the nitrogen cycle is important. Because nitrite is very toxic. It has to be converted to nitrate on. Nitrite less than 1 mg / l. Nitrate max. 30 mg / l
The ever-filter sponge with lukewarm water clean. It must not be very clean.


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