Ok i posted about 2 weeks ago about how one of my filter stopped working while i was on holidays, i got that fixed now i have a bigger problem.

As one of my filter was not fully cycled due to it breaking while i was away i took some cycled filter media out of my cycled filter and put it in my uncycled so that both filters on my tank had bacteria in them. I was struggeling a little with ammonia the tanks ammo level was at 0.25 to 0.5 and my tap water comes out about the same and when i had both filter working it kept my tanks ammo at 0.0. I started using Ammo lock along with prime when doing water changes, i was doing more water changes than normal while the bacteria was building up.

I thought every thing was fine and did a 150 liter water cahnge on wed. my tank is 500 liters and then tested my tank for ammo yesterday (thurs) and it was up to 4.00. the filter that came with the tank is a top of tank wet dry trickel filter and it was off for about 45min during water change but i was pouring tank water through the filter to make sure there was enough oxygen in the water for the bacteria to stay alive, i also noticed that there was a layer of oil or some type of film on the top of the tank. I did another water change yesterday first of all trying to the the layer of film off the top of the tank then just normal water change, i changed about 120 liters of water using prime and ammo lock, the ammo dropped slightly but now the tank was a bit cloudy. Later last night nothing had changed so i did another 150 liter water change and stll got no change. I was worried that i would wake up to find all my fish dead. I just got up ammo still around 3 and tank cloudy with the layer of film on top, fish seem happy and still have there normal colour.

To me it seems like the tank is cycling, how could this happen? and what is the best way to fix this?

Cheers

tap water


tank water

Keep adding ammo lock and do daily water changes to keep the ammonia down. This is about all you can do

Get yourself a good quality external cannister filter rated for a tank twice as big as your tank, ie if you have a 50g tank get a filter rated for 100g

possible the film is a protein film, some good circulation could help,
ie put the outlet of the filter as close to the top as you can,
i have seen people say to lay paper towels on the top of the water, but i wouldnt fancy any bits from the towels, i have aquarium safe wipes that may help if you can get some locally?

re your ammon' maybe as you say it has started to cycle possibly to big a water change?
maybe just do 10-15% changes especially with new filter,
also try some ammonia media, ALTHOUGH that will mean opening your filter again
hope you get sorted

Thanks for the quick replies guys.
As for filtration i have a canister rated 1500 liters p/hr and a the filter that came with the tank is a trickel filter rated 2000liters p/h and the outle is right at water level.
The trickel filter is the one that broke down and once i got it running again i put some cycled media from the canister in the trickel filter so both filter would have some bacteria in them.
Is this level of ammo going to harm my fish?

If the cannister filter is big enough to filter the tank on its own it should take up the slack from the other filter failing quite quickly. How big is the tank and what is the filter rated for?

the tank is 500 liters
canister 1500 liters p/h
trickel filter 2000 liters p/h
so altogether thats 3500 liter p/h of filtration, 7 x the tanks volume
i used to have a 2000 liter internal power filter as well but i had to pull it apart to fix the trickel filter.

and would the cloudy water be the ammo?

What is your pH?

ph is 6.0

Your pH is definitely 6.0?

please check, there are times that the filter pump had been stuff too much media.
in the process, it reduces the turn over tremendously, thus, making the filtration
less effective though too much turnover is also not good.

since you have lower ammonia in tap, a large water change is a must.

I am trying to ascertain whether his pH is indeed 6.0. If this is the case then there is no need for any water changes. Just carry on as you are and hopefully your test results should show Zero before too long

just re- tested my ph and is actully closer to 6.3

Im pretty sure there is the right amount of media in the canister as i havent added any more media in the last 6 months or maybe more.