General Care Discussion :: Please Help. Ammonia levels high.

[Meta]

SO my tank is cloudy, and i keep doing water changes but it wont get less cloudy. its a 55 gallon. 6 inch turtle. i have a cork bark in there as a basking dock which is at least a year old so idk if that could cause cloudiness, but i ran some water testing. heres my results:

pH. 6.7
ammonia: 8 ppm mg/L
nitrite: 0 ppm mg/L
nitrate: 5 ppm mg/L

what do i do to make the cloudiness go away? filter is an xp3 with a white pad in top basket along with carbon. 2nd level has ceramic rings. bottom has 2 20ppi and 2 30ppi black foam pads.

[Love of Animals]

How old is your tank? Is it new? If it's new and these are cycling readings some people recommend not doing water changes during this time. I recommend doing small partial changes once or twice a week during cycling. If this is not a new tank please tell us about your maintenance, feeding schedules and do you have anything but your turtle in the tank? Is the water filled to the top?

[Meta]

tanks not new. i have cork bark for dock, porcelain tiles for flooring, and a fake plant suctioned to the side. a lot of the time im lazy and dont take water out of the tank, just fill up whats evaporated, but ive been doing partial water changes lately to combat the cloudiness and whatever. i feed it reptomin pellets and green leaf lettuce every other day usually. water is about 13-14 inches high. i just removed 70% of the water and refilled.

[PridgNYC]

When was the last time you replaced your carbon? When you top off and do your water changes, do you use tap water or conditioned water?

If you are using tap water, and not changing your carbon, I am thinking you are killing off the bacteria in the filter and that is why you are seeing ammonia spikes.

[PridgNYC]

Yep, definately killing your bacteria, your carbon should be in the middle basket before the ceramic rings. See this thread...viewtopic.php?f=9&t=30145#p288911

[Meta]

the rena instruction manual has carbon in the top, bio in middle. but its been clodu for weeks. it has had time to replenish bacteria

[Love of Animals]

Your turtle may be producing more waste than the filter can handle. Is there any way you can make and ATBA and fill it up to the top. I have a Rena XP3 on a 55 gallon filled to the top, an ATBA with a 5 in turtle and a 5 - 6 in goldfish in there. I do 20 % water changes once a week while I vacuum the bottom. I have my Rena set up just like yours. I do filter maintenance once every 4 - 6 weeks and replace the carbon then. The carbon should be replaced monthly.