Ok guys, I am at a loss... 122 gallon Sieve. 2 grown vibrating Oscars... No tank mates. FX5 and a 60 gallon HOB just to skim the top of the water. No carbon. I only feed every other day, 8 or 9 pellets. after 2 minutes I scoop.. Anyway I can only go about 3 days lately between water changes as my ammonia is at .25... My nitrites are never above 0, and my nitrates fluctuate between 10 and 30ppm... all is normal except the ammonia...


WHY???

BTW. tap water is 0 ammonia

timing of the test has something to do. fishes usually pooh immediately
after feeding.... and those pooh secrete a load of ammonia. give time
to settle down and be processed by the filtering system before testing.
try to compare.

I feed at night and test mid morning!

try to test before feedings and find out.

What do you mean? I feed at night before I go to bed. and then when I do a water test the following morning at about 10 am or so...

okey, i got it, it is not conducive for you to test before feeding.
my point is, we have to find out the pattern of their pooing. mine
used to do it immediately after eating.. which is every morning.
and you can smell the ammonia... it stinks to the nose.... that is
when ammonia is on its peak...

perhaps your fish had different pattern.... because if your water
is always high in ammonia, your fishes would show some trouble...
gasping, not eating, splashing...etc, etc, .... and i believe it is
not...

although ammonia is normally produce when waste reacted to the oxygen
in water for a longer time.... but waste alone already had ammonia.

That is why I am confused... With that filtration, in that size of a tank, with only two fish, regardless of when they are pooping I should be able to go more than 3 days without a water change... The FX5 has been cleaned over the last 2 weeks... I only feed every other day.. I used to be able to go almost 2 weeks without a water change and now it is 3 or 4 days...

there must be something wrong or that had been altered
to cause that...i am confuse too.

but when ammonia is high, there must be nitrite too....
if the FX5 is not doing its job??????

NO Nitrite... Never any nitrites... I don't know what to do... The out put on the FX% is enough to blow your arm away so it is working but I can't figure it out...

when you cleaned the fx5 you may have destroyed your bacteria colony !!!!!! or ......i have experienced this before where too much fresh water due to waterchanges will kill the colony also ....as the bacteria needs ammo to feed on to stay alive and removing it through waterchanges will deprive the colony of its vital nutrient AMMONIA ......theres no nitrite as the ammo bacteria make this as a bi product of their ammo removal ...then a sepperate nitrite colony develops to eat this turning it as their bi product into the less harmless NITRATE .........if the ammo colony has died then there CANT be any NITRITE in your tank as the ammo colony makes it !!!!sorry sounds to me like you got a 40 day cycle on your hands girl .......dont clean your fx5 and keep waterchanges to an absoloute minimal after your cycling process is complete ..

Why would that have happened? I cleaned the FX5 in dirty tank water, only cleaned one tray at a time... I always unplug when cleaning the tank... I am so pissed off about this it isn't even funny!

you may have deprived the ammo colony of oxygen for too long when your fx5 was turned off ......or the frequent waterchanges combined with the filter cleaning ..i have experienced this problem many many times in my 25 years of tropical fishkeeping ....and no doubt will again ..chin up love and crack on with it ...you will soon be looking back at this unfortunate event !!!!