Ammonia Spike

[JDMac2006]

what could have caused it? what should i do? every week just after i get done with my gravle cleaning and water change i test the water, i just got done with my weekly maintience a few minutes ago and i tested my water and my ammonia is now at 1.5 ppm, last week when i tested it, it was at 0 ppm, please help

[newfishie]

Gaah,try doing a water change again.

[JDMac2006]

went to do another water change and decided to test it again and now the ammonia is at .5 ppm so im going to wait another half hour and see if it goes all the way down

[Wynkin]

I think that it is because you stirred up the bottom from the vacuuming. Try testing it now and it should be zero.

I have read on this board that if you test for ammonia right after feeding it will spike up a bit but then go back down to zero after a couple of hours. It is only a problem for the fish if the ammonia stays high consistenly.

If your reading goes down after several hours, then it is just from the yuck at the bottom being stirred up. I am not sure why it would have been zero last week after a water change and then 1.5 this week.

I think that your tank is fairly new--am I right? I have noticed that now that my fish are bigger when I vacuum the gravel there is so much more waste lately.

But I always test my water before the water change so I don't know if I would have an ammonia reading after stirring up the bottom. I am thinking of going graveless in the new tank that I am going to set up.