20L tank has very high ammonia. We've done water changes, upgraded the filter and been careful about feeding (we use crisps because we can count them). It has about 1/3 the number of fish it's supposed to have. We added plants, used the white gravel, and added enzymes. Nitrites never go up and ammonia never comes down. We lost all our mollies.
The yo-yo at Petsmart doesn't know what more to do.
Answers:
The zeolite could be the problem, it takes the ammonia away from the beneficial bacteria that will turn it into nitrite. Are you changing the filter cartridges or rinsing them in tap water? If so stop that too, the majority of the beneficial bacteria live on those cartridges. If they need to be cleaned then rinse them in the water that you remove when you do the water changes. You can also try Bio-Spira, I have never used it but I have heard from people that it is the best stuff to use to start a cycle. It's supposed to be the only one that has live bacteria in it.
What kind of filter? try a Biofilter
what kind of water are you using? try using R/O(reverse osmosis water)
water quality contributes alot. try some aquarium salt (mollies/platies/guppies all them like it)
get an amonia reducer..smaller aquariums usually have that problem of higher amonia rates..
purigen works well.also prime works. it doesnt remove the amonia but detoxifies it.
I have a 4L tank and what I found to work best is distilled drinking water with only a few fish until the tank has an established fauna(algea and good water currents). Once this is established add one fish a month making sure to adjust to extra food.
Have you tried "Z-Rock" or Zeolite rock filtration media?
First, *how* are you cleaning your tank? You should be mindful that you do not completely disrupt your biological filter bed. I have known MANY people who completely break down their tanks EVERY time they "clean" them. Which, is very bad. If your PH is too acidic, it will be difficult if not impossible to get your biological filtration working right, so the real first is to do a PH test and get your water back to nuetral or alkaline (for livebearers).
You should wait to add your good enzymes until your PH is where it should be. You can add some crushed coral to bring up your PH and help stabilize your PH. If you have white gravel it should blend in well. If you are already using crushed coral as your substrate then I would personally break down the tank and start over clean. At the very least, you could do 10% daily water changes for a week and see if that calms things down. Your amonia spike might be a hold over from previous issues, and just not reflecting your improved nitrate/nitrite levels yet.
It may be that there is some kind of toxin in the tank that is killing off your biological filtration. I once worked on a public display tank that was in a heavy smoking area, and the "help" kept using bad cleaning chemicals too close to the tank. The toxins in the air made biological filtration almost impossible, so we had to put in about 10x the normal physical/chemical filtration to compensate.
What kind of fish are you keeping? Are you mixing cold and freshwater fish together, as in goldfish and tropicals? This is the kind of issues I have fixed a million times, so if you want more specific help or don't get the answer or help here feel free to e-mail me directly. There are more extreme measures you can take, but I don't want to jump the gun and need more info.
Good luck!
how long do you let it cycle before puting fish in it?
you need to let it cycle for about 2 months on the sage side
Mollies are brackish water fish and need some salt in their water. If they had no salt, that contributed to their demise.
What is "the white gravel?"
If you change all of the water (100%) you are going to have to go through the nitrogen cycle all over again every time you do it. During the nitrogen cycle, you get ammonia spikes. If there is not sufficient bacteria in the tank to handle the ammonia, it stays very high and the fish die. That's why you must do 30% water changes every 3 days during the 3 weeks of the nitrogen cycle. When it is done and the water parameters are normal, then you can start doing the 25-30% water changes once a week or every 10 days. Once a tank is up and running, never tear it down, clean it out or change 100% of the water.
I have tanks that have been up and running for more than five years without a teardown. I am religious about regular (weekly) partial (25-30%) water changes and stirring (you can also buy a gravel siphon that removes water and debris at the same time) the gravel or sand to get the debris up in the water so the filter can remove it. Change or clean your filter floss every time you see it get really dirty and put new carbon in every month.
You're tank was never established (unless you threw out your old filter media from your previous filter and all the beneficial bacteria along with it).
Your tank is obviously not cycled and is currently experiencing what is known as an 'ammonia spike'. These often result in some fish losses. The ammonia spike will eventually disappear only to be followed by a 'nitrite spike'. The nitrite spike will last just as long if not longer than the ammonia spike and is also lethal.
Since you have fish in the tank, you'll need to conduct frequent water changes until the beneficial bacteria is in sufficient quantity to do the job. Do a 40% water change now, and 25-40% daily (or every other day) to keep ammonia at 1ppm or below. This may prelong the cycle a bit, but you'll improve the quality of your water and save your remaining fish.
Your tank is considered cycled when both ammonia and nitrite are undetectable and you have an accumulation of nitrate (once that occurs the frequency of water changes can be reduced to 25% weekly). The cycling of a tank can take several weeks. (Refrigerated bio-starters like Marineland's BIO-SPIRA will reduce that time period to less than a week if not near instantly). Seeding your tank with bio-media from another established tank will also accelerate the process.
Since most of your fish are gone anyway, try to use feeder fish-about four of them will do. Are you using a bio wheel? Penguin bio wheel does the best job for your money. In my own opinion, it is always good to go with a larger capacity filter. You say you have a 20L tank, maybe try a 40L filter and wait until your good bacteria establishes itself on the wheel before adding more mollies. While you recycle your tank, do not do any water changes or add chemicals, let nature take it's course. Dont waste your money on products trying to jump start the re-cycling of your tank-they dont work.
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