I am battling high ammonia problems. It has been 6 days since I did a water change. My ammonia was 2.5 nitrite was 0-.25 ph 7.2 nitrate 20. My question is why such high ammonia and normal nitrites? Are my filters not converting the ammonia right? My tank is 120 gal US, established 8 months, I have 1-6in O, 2-4in JDs, 1 jewel, and 1 small salvina. My filters are 2 Emporer 4oo(total 800gph)and a sponge filter with a powerhead(300 gph). I have bio rings in my Emporers. I may over feed a bit but I dont think enough to cause such a problem. Thanks as always.

could be something to do with the big stones at the bottom,

i had the same but a bit bigger and it was hard to clean, get you hand in and mess up the stone and i bet theres load of shit in there, there was so much in mine a couldn`t believe it evan tho the water was fine

look at my vids if you want to see the stones

oops, fishboy, wrong thread.
Anyways, Shannon,
Could there have been a power outage?
That could have killed your bacteria.
No maintenance changes lately?

sorry folks

No maintenance issues or power outages. I have been battling ich alot. However, the meds say that they won`t hurt bio. When I do water changes I have been leaving my filters on to protect bio.

Your nitrates are fine but you should not be getting any readings in ammonia and nitrites. If you are over feeding make sure you scoop out or vaccuum any left over foods 5 minutes or so after you feed them. Do you gravel vac every week? Sounds to me like you have a mini cycle going on and this is why you are also having issues with ICH

I would increase your water changes to 25% twice a week to get the ammonia/nitrite levels under control. As for treating ICH the best remedy is to slowly increase your water temp. to 84-86 degrees for the next 14 days. Ich can not survive at these temps. You can also add salt to your tank as well.

If I get ich again I will take the advise. I was looking at other threads, is it possible that with 2 HOBs and a sponge filter that I dont have enough bio? My HOBs have places for 4 stand up trays of bio-balls;the sponge is supposed to be big enough for a 125gal tank.One other thing, I had tanks 20 years ago and I only used an under gravel filter. I had no probs and didnt change my water near as much.I didnt use them on my new tank cuz most info I saw said not too. What do you think of under gravel filters?

under gravel filters not good for oscars

look at your bacteria colony, if theres not thet much bacteria on them there going threw a cycle.

You may not have enough filtration. how big is the tank and what filters do you have (what size tank are they rated for). UGF are quite ineffient, the way to make they good is to take the output of a cannister to push water down the tube. dont forget to put a gravel tidy in too. If you want more info on this just ask

My tank is 120gal US. I have 2 Emporer 400s(800 gal per hour total) 1140 powerhead(300 gph). Each Emporer hob is rated for a 90 gal tank. I am still not very happy with these filters. When money allows would a fx5 be enough?

What test kits are you using?

If your nitrite is Zero then I don't think there is too much wrong with your biological filter. I would definitely advise you to reduce the amount of food going into that and can tell you have this under control. Please test your pH again and give us the exact reading.

What media have you got inside your filters? Also, have you got bio wheels