Equipment Review and Discussion :: ammonia help... ?

[blueace23]

Ok, so my water finally cleared up now that my fluval canister filter has been established, but I have a big concern. The ammonia level in the tank is extremely high, like really dark green on the scale (all the way up.) I've been doing partial water changes for the last week and a half, and putting water conditioner in the new water going into the tank. My questions are these:

1. Should i buy a gravel vacuum to suck up all the old food pieces in the bottom of the tank, will that work for this purpose?

2. Do i need to do a complete water change of the water in the aquarium since it doesn't seem like the partial water changes have helped in bringing down the ammonia levels? ( i know not to mess with the bacteria that has built up in the filter itself, only to rinse it in the old tank water if necessary and to use water conditioner when putting in new water) but since the ammonia levels are extremely high, if i do a complete water change of the tank water after i use a gravel vacuum to suck out all the old stuff, will that help or hurt the situation?

The ph, nitrites, and nitrate levels are all fine, it's just the ammonia level is WAY too high. Help! Thanks

[jay2487]

Nitrates are ammonia that has been processed by bacteria. If you have no nitrates and a lot of ammonia you have no bacteria. If that filter was established, you would be watching the ammonia drop. Vacuuming won't help much, only do 50% water changes once a day until nitrates start to rise. Make sure your completely treating your tap water or you'll never get anywhere. You can leave it sitting out for 12 hours and all the chlorine will evaporate if you don't trust the conditioner.

[seanwb]

You should get all the old food out so it is not polluting the water, but it probably won't help a lot.

If you have old food in there, are you feeding too much? Food is something that is never in my turtle tanks for more than 2 minutes.

Stick with the partial water changes and sooner or later you will see the ammonia drop and nitrates surge before they go down. The whole cycle can take up to six weeks