# Ammonia and Nitrites Still high after water changes...WTF!!&#3



## Rhomofo (Oct 10, 2007)

I have a 90 gallon tank with 1 13" rhom in it. I did 20% water change last night and I checked my ammonia and nitrite and they were real bad. So I get home today from work and do a 60% water change and my ammonia is still at 1.0 and nitrite is still 1.0. My rhom is still eating fine not breathing hard at all. I watch him eat all the time and always swallows the smelts whole so I no there isn't any left over food anywhere. I clean my filter sponge every week and I have three media bags of ceramic bio rings in a Aqua Clear 110. I am also dosing with Stability every water change. What do you guys think is going on? All test kits are brand new. I even bought another set from a different store to make sure they aren't old


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## roccov12345 (Sep 26, 2008)

Rhomofo said:


> I have a 90 gallon tank with 1 13" rhom in it. I did 20% water change last night and I checked my ammonia and nitrite and they were real bad. So I get home today from work and do a 60% water change and my ammonia is still at 1.0 and nitrite is still 1.0. My rhom is still eating fine not breathing hard at all. I watch him eat all the time and always swallows the smelts whole so I no there isn't any left over food anywhere. I clean my filter sponge every week and I have three media bags of ceramic bio rings in a Aqua Clear 110. I am also dosing with Stability every water change. What do you guys think is going on? All test kits are brand new. I even bought another set from a different store to make sure they aren't old


How are you cleaning your sponge filter......


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## pirairtool (Nov 12, 2005)

Make sure new water doesnt have chlorine in it, eg it is carbon filtered or you use something like aquasafe, also make sure you arent washing sponges with tap water, make sure also this is carbon filtered water or tank was as it will kill all the good bacteria. Also i think every week is maybe a little to much, i do my sponges every 6 months, bio i never touch. One other thing, test your water coming out your tap, tap water will have ammonia and nitrates in it so it might be down to this


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## Rhomofo (Oct 10, 2007)

I mix in the prime before I add the water back into the tank. My tap water parameters are 0 ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate. I do rinse out the sponge in tap water but I rinse in declorinated tank water before I replace.


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## roccov12345 (Sep 26, 2008)

Rhomofo said:


> I mix in the prime before I add the water back into the tank. My tap water parameters are 0 ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate. I do rinse out the sponge in tap water but I rinse in declorinated tank water before I replace.


I think that may be part of your issue, the sponge is probably carrying bene. bacteria and by rinsing in tap water you're killing them off. Rinse out the sponge filter in tank water only.... and I probably wouldn't even bother rinsing out the bio for at least a month.......


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## Lifer374 (Dec 5, 2003)

roccov12345 said:


> I mix in the prime before I add the water back into the tank. My tap water parameters are 0 ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate. I do rinse out the sponge in tap water but I rinse in declorinated tank water before I replace.


I think that may be part of your issue, the sponge is probably carrying bene. bacteria and by rinsing in tap water you're killing them off. Rinse out the sponge filter in tank water only.... and I probably wouldn't even bother rinsing out the bio for at least a month.......
[/quote]

I've been doing exactly what Rhomofo does cleaning filters since I was 15 years old. Never had an issue.....but you never know. lol

I would stop feeding until you get this under control. 
Was the tank cycled prior to putting your new rhom? With what?


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## Rhomofo (Oct 10, 2007)

Tango374 said:


> I mix in the prime before I add the water back into the tank. My tap water parameters are 0 ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate. I do rinse out the sponge in tap water but I rinse in declorinated tank water before I replace.


I think that may be part of your issue, the sponge is probably carrying bene. bacteria and by rinsing in tap water you're killing them off. Rinse out the sponge filter in tank water only.... and I probably wouldn't even bother rinsing out the bio for at least a month.......
[/quote]

I've been doing exactly what Rhomofo does cleaning filters since I was 15 years old. Never had an issue.....but you never know. lol

I would stop feeding until you get this under control. 
Was the tank cycled prior to putting your new rhom? With what?
[/quote]

No the tank was not cycled prior to me picking up the piranha. The tank was set up for saltwater and I cleaned it out really good and let it sit for a day. Then I added some water and let that sit for 2 days. Then I added alot of gravel out of my 150 gallon(That tank is definitely cycled) and some on the bio rings from the sump and about 45 gallons of water went into the 90 gallon.

Well to make a long story short what I did to fix my problem is I added a 2nd Aqua clear 110 to the tank with more bio rings from an established tank as well as dosing stabilty and my parameter have now balanced out. 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and 40 nitrate. I can now do 5 gallon a day water changes and the nitrates would be lower than that.

Oh and just a little tip to anyone looking to buy Aquaclear filters. I printed out an old advertisement from foster & smith when they had the AC110 for $44.99 and brought it to Petsmart and they still honored the price match. The cashier didn't want to honor it because it was half off the regular price but I told her that I just called the manager 20 minutes ago. So she ended up calling the manager and he remembered that I had called and told her to go ahead. She continued to try to give me a hard time but the manager just said charge $44.99 and that's final and walked away. I just smiled and told her I just bought 4 of these last month and none of the other stores cared.


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## Rhomofo (Oct 10, 2007)

Here's a video of him I took this morning.


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