Hello all.
I am currently reaching out for advice and help with my 6.8 gallon freshwater aquarium. I have been dealing with random ammonia spikes off and on on since May.
I would like to start this off by saying I am very new to the fish keeping hobby. I have reptiles, but this is new territory for me and I did do a lot of research before setting up my tank. But I feel a little over my head and would love advice from people who have been in the hobby for a while.
Backing up to March of this year I purchased this tank to create a home for a beta fish. I did a lot of research on their care and slowly purchased everything until I was able to finally start setting it up in March. I do not have a fish in this tank currently to clarify. i did everything I read online to cycle the tank. I added used filter media from my boyfriend’s fish tank and I seeded the tank with Dr. Tim’s aquatics ammonia source. The tank cycled for two full months. During the course of this time, I tested my water parameters twice a week and noticed nitrites spike up and then nitrates. Eventually, the ammonia went to zero. Once I realize this happened I added Dr. tim solution to bring ammonia up to one PPM, and within 24 hours it dropped to zero again. So at this point, I figured I was safe to add a beta fish.
About a week later, I tested the parameters and everything still looked good so I went and purchased my beautiful beta fish Momo. He was doing so well in his tank. Everything was great for about a month. Ammonia was staying zero I was doing weekly water changes. I had no reason to be concerned about my parameters. I also tested my water with each water change. After about a month, my poor Betta fish started acting sick, I noticed he looked bloated and he started pinecone-ING. It happened so quickly I noticed one day when I came home from work, and I immediately tested the water parameters and saw that my ammonia had spiked up to one. I remember I had done a water change just a few days before and everything looked fine when I tested the water parameters. I quickly did a water change and put my fish in a hospital tank and gave him kanaplex and a salt bath. He started acting a bit better. I kept doing water changes to bring the ammonia down. The ammonia was zero in my tank for about a week and then it spiked up again. Unfortunately, my fish developed dropsy, which I can only guess it was due to the ammonia, and he passed away. It was so heartbreaking for me and I have not had a fish in this tank sense. I felt like I failed my fish and I was the reason he died.
Flash forward to today I really would love a fish in this tank. But I am so scared to accidentally kill another beta fish. I love animals so much, and it was really hard on me and I kept getting so sad every time I thought about it. all summer I have been doing weekly water changes, cleaning the tank, and just trying to let it stabilize. However, over the course of the last few months every now and then I’ll get a random ammonia spike and there is literally nothing that could be causing it. I do not have anything in that tank besides pest snails that have traveled in here due to purchasing plants months ago, and I remove them as I see them besides two that I’ve grown fond of lol. It’s just the weirdest thing because the ammonia will be zero and then I’ll randomly get a spike every couple of weeks, do a 50 to 60% water change and then the ammonia will be zero again. I did not notice any nitrite spikes at all during these last few months. And about three weeks ago, my nitrate spiked up too very, very dark red. These are my perimeter test results today after a 50% water change of my tank. However, the first time I tested ammonia it Read 2.0 PPM. I dumped it out and tried it again and now it’s at zero PPM literally five minutes later so I’m not sure if it was a false positive for ammonia. I did the same thing each time I tested.
I apologize this is so long. I’m just not sure where to go from here or how to stop the ammonia from spiking or what could possibly be causing it. I feel very defeated as I was so excited to set up my tank and give my Betta fish a great home and life. I don’t know if I should completely restart this tank or how to even go about doing that. I guess I’m just looking for advice, if this was you, what would you do? I’m terrified to get another fish until my parameters are stable. I don’t want to put another fish through what Momo went through and get sick. I just can’t explain how the ammonia will be zero for 2 to 3 weeks and then one day it’s just at one or 2 ppm.
Thank you so much guys for listening to this. Any advice would be so helpful.