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I am currenty running a 50 gallon aquarium with 2 damsals, 1 perc. clown, and a yellow tang. Within 24 hours i had an ammonia spike which is currently between .5 and .75, but 24 hours ago it was 0. I havnt added any fish, but what elso could cause the ammonia spike? I do partial water changes every week and am running out of idea.

please help

thanks
john

Something dead and rotting in the tank? Overfeeding?
Those are the onyl possibilities I can come up with...
Work on doing lots of small water changes.

i checked for anything rotting, and came up with nothing, i only feed my fish every other day. i am completly confused. what is the actual lethal level of ammonia, i was told any ammonia is lethal, but i am sure a little is not considered lethal. thanks

john

Actually any ammonia in your system could be lethal....any measurable level that is. SW fish dont tolerate poor water quality as well as FW fish can.

I would do water changes and get the ammonia down that way...

"dilution is the solution to pollution"

What are your other water parameters?
What size are your fish?
Do you have LR?
What is your filters?
How long has your tank been up?
How often do you do water changes? And how much?

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There is always a bigger fish...

All the water parameters are normal except the amonia, it is a 50 gallon hexagon, with 30lbs of live rock. I use an undergravel filter, and a seclone 100 skimmer, i do 2 gallon water changes a week. All of the fish are under 2inches. The tank has been set up for about 4 months now.


EDIT. today my perc clown isacting diffrent (he usually swims all over the tank, no he is just hoovering in one spot)..starting to get worried...how many water changes can i do in one day, i will do anything so i dont lose my perc. clown

Sounds like something died in the tank, perhaps a large bristle worm.

Dan


Dan

What do you feed them? Maybe a piece of food did not get eaten. Also, how deep is your sand bed, and has it been disturbed much lately? Fish digging, or you moved something around? Within the sand bed, no matter how deep, their are anaerobic bacteria. If they get oxygen, they will die, and can cause an ammonia spike.

2 gallon water changes are not sufficient IMO. That is only like 1/25 of the water. You should be doing more like 20% or 1/5 of the water. Eventually, you should be able to do them on less of a timely basis. After your cycle settles, you only need to do water changes for the increase in nitrAtes. So you will be able to change your routine for this. In other words, once you have established the time it takes them to become increased to hazardous levels, then you do the water changes. This varies with all tanks, some may be each week, while others may be every month or even more. Water changes are purely to remove the nitrAtes as they build up.

You say your other parameters are all normal, but I am wanting to know what your nitrAtes are, even more now, especially with such small water changes. High nitrates can have an effect on LR and other smaller living critters in your tank. This could be causing some die off. Actually they have an effect on all critters in the tank, just the smaller ones will have detrimental effects quicker.

Also, your tank is still considered quite young for a SW set up. How long have you had the LR in the tank? You could still have some die off, or curing of the LR, which can cause an ammonia spike.

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There is always a bigger fish...

do u get any uneaten food out of the tank that the fish didnt get? (i know this wouldnt cause a large spike but it could cause trouble) or maybe (big maybe) its your test strip, or kit w/e. you should try another one.

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pnh