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Hi! I'm new to this group.I just did a 50% cleaning of my
55 gallon tank.I made the mistake of moving my substrate around thinking I was doing a good thing.Turns out I killed
all my healthy bacteria.My water turned white and cloudy,and my ammonia level is off the charts. My fish seem
to be doing well,4 Angels,2 Dawrf gorminis,2 blood fins,and
2 emporer teteras). I first used ammonia clear and ammonia
chips to bring down ammonia level with no luck.Yesterday I
added a large bag of bio spira.This morning ammonia was at 4% still very high.Should I do another 50% change and add more bio spira? Any suggestions? I could really use some advise.

Thanks!
Bill

Hmm, turning up the gravel shouldn't kill bacteria. Sucking them all up would get rid of them and that would hurt the biofitler, but just moving everything around shouldn't hurt that much. Plus the bacteria in your filter should help as well. Was the tank cycled before this? Were there ammonia readings before you did anything with the gravel?

What kind of test are you using and how old is it? It may be time for a new/ better one.

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Back in the saddle!

Well, the good news is that you didn't kill all of your bacteria. The bad news is that you stirred up a lot of material that released a lot of ammonia into your tank and the bacteria are maddly reproducing to eat up all of the ammonia. This stuff you've stirred up fom the gravel is called mulm, and it's very nutrient rich and is good for your tank in moderation, but when it's released into the water colum it oxydizes and rots and creats lots of ammonia. Instead of doing large water changes every so often, just do small 25-30% changes more frequently. It's good to vacum your gravel with each water change, but don't just go stirring it up. It is good to aerate your subtrate, but do it with a gravel vac so you suck up the stuff you stir up.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

Thanks for your responses. Yes my ammonia readings were high to begin with,thus the reason for the 50% water change.I did suck up the gravel after moving it around.I do have a habit of over feeding.......I also did a 50% change before adding the bio spira.Today my water is clear
but still high in ammonia.Should I continue with small changes? 15 - 25%?

Thanks,
Bill

Continue with small changes, let bio-spira do its job. Don't gravel vac now that the mulm has settled down. Only suck up any fish waste/ food sitting on top of the substrate, Vacuuming deep down again will just disturb the bacteria and take you back to the start

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Back in the saddle!

Cleaning the substrate will not kill the bacteria at all.

At the same time did you do a filter change/cleaning. If you clean the filter it should be done in the tank water you have just removed from the tank.
If you clean the filter under a running tap you then will kill most or all of the bacteria thus causing more problems like a recycling the filter.
It must be done quickly if not the bacteria will/can die.

When I do the 30% weekly water change I always add a Bio stater to keep the good bacteria growing healthy.

Feeding can always be a problem especially if you are over feeding. I feed once per day and never on the day of the water change.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

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the additive that you put in the tank to reduce the ammonia levels may also be giving you a false reading, due to the reagents used in the test kit itself.

Thanks everyone for all the info! My water is looking great! I agree with Fallout. I think I'm getting false results on my ammonia testing kits. My fish are doing well and I reduced my feedings to once a day. Thanks agin to all
who replied.

Bill