Tag Archives: ammonia

Saltwater damsel fish death?

I have a 55 gallon saltwater tank with a 4in. live sand bed, and a few pieces of fake coral. We have a power head (wave maker) a heater and a dual whisper filter with 2 bio-wheels. I let my tank run for a full month before adding (i’m not sure that did any good, but I waited anyway) just the other day I purchased 3 small yellow tailed blue damsels. Acclimated them just like we were told and even fed them live brine shrimp. The next morning, there was a white fish that was once blue laying dead at the bottom of the tank. Checked the levels the Ammonia was 0, pH was 8.2, Nitrite was 0, and Nitrate was 0, and the hydrometer said 1.022….The other 2 fish seemed fine and were swimming and eating …the next day yet another fish dead….checked the levels again I got the same results…now today they other fish is found dead in the same spot as the others? The pH is 8.3, so that is slightly higher but nothing else. What are we doing wrong? Anything we can do/buy that would help?

Filter Question/Problems?

My 20 gallon tank is a little on the full side, and does contain 15 small fish, all roughly 1″ or so in length. I’m using a bio-wheel filter that is meant for a 55 gallon tank. My water always stays crystal clear, and my ammonia, nitrite, nitrate etc, always look good. However I’m going through filters like crazy, I have to put a new filter cartridge in the filter about once a week, the filters I pull out are so clogged they won’t flow water. I’m feeding my fish a pre-measured amount of brine shrimp, once in the morning, once at night before I go to bed, so I don’t believe they are being over fed. I can’t find reuseable cartridges for my filter, so this is starting to get exspensive. Is there another type of filter I could use, perhaps a canister type filter?

I just can’t believe a filter should only last 7 days?
Thanks for the feedback so far, it seems that this is not normal, but why is my filter getting clogged up so quickly? Even if I rinse it out every other day or so I still only extend the life of it by a couple days.

I take it the reason comes down to an overstocked tank or not? Some people have said it is overstocked, some say its not?
Oh and some asked, about my water and filter.

I’ve just been using regular tap water, that is treated, and I add salt to it.

As for the filters, the only ones that fit my filter are the ones MarineLand makes for their bio wheel filters.

Too much ammonia in fish tank?

I have a 30 gallon freshwater aquarium. It has two zebra fish, a silver dollar fish, a sunburst, two neon tetras, a guppy, a frog, a scissors tail and a cory cat in it. I do a partial water change almost every 10 days. I have had it set up for about a month now. I test almost every day for ph, nitrate, and ammonia levels. The ph and nitrate levels are great. The ammonia levels are always high though. I have four ammonia bags in the tank (to help control the ammonia). I feed the fish twice a day fish flakes. There is never any left after 5 minutes of feeding. I also give them a treat once a week of freeze dried brine shrimp cube. Why do you think the ammonia is always high? I have tried ammonia lock to help control the ammonia, but it doesn’t seem to be helping. I have two filters in the tank and both hang on the back. What do you think could be causing the ammonia problem? I also add aquaium salt with every partial water change. Any suggestions?