Contantly high ammonia levels

[sasha299]

Hi all,
I cycled my test tank fishlessly and it cycled well. Its a 25 gallon cube tank that had a 12x12x13 deep GB growing Lettuce and Spinach. Inside the tank we several clumps of ferns. I added 3 goldfish (small tank) and all was well for about 5 months - my 3 year old loved them.

We had a power surge in August and had a minor accident where I had to replace the pump - lost the plants which we replaced with some suckers from our kitchen window. We lost electricity after (pumps all went off again) and then had several very hot days where the temperature in the tank spiked to almost 90 F - no AC. I ended up having to top off my tank - tap water that I allowed to sit for several days - no pet store chemicals added. After this my readings started going haywire - I lost 2 of the fish in quick succession. It was hard having the "fish go to heaven" talk with my toddler.

My ammonia readings were HIGH - off the chart High. I did a quick 1/2 tank water change out of desperation and the readings are now staying steady at 4 ppm over a month now. I am ready to empty out hte tank, and start all over again.

I recently spoke with someone from our public works dept and he indicated that the city uses choramine which would account for the ammonia spike. No suggestions as to a correction for the tank.

Our lone fish is living in a glass vase until we can figure out where to go from here. His levels are great.

My DH who has had many fish tanks has no idea what could be causing the ammonia spike because when we first cycled the tank we had to add ammonia (100% pure) to get it started. It did take the exact 6 weeks to cycle fishlessly back in March. We have even attached a mechanical filter to the tank hoping that it would help but it does not.

My Nitrate/Nitrite/PH levels are ALL at or close to 0/neutral so I assume our beneficial bacteria is dead. We have tried using the vaccum to get rid of the protein and algea scraper for the algea (after we removed the lone suvivor we noticed that we started getting algea).

Can anyone provide any suggestions?

[davidstcldfl]

Hi sasha299, Sorry to hear about your 'crash'. It does sound like you were off to a good start...
Sounds like you might need to start over...

As for the chloromine....If I remember, it takes a good month for it to go away on it's own.
Some of us use sodium ascorbate. You can buy it online or in a health food store. It doesn't take much....aprox 1/8 tespoon to 50 gals. I don't know if the test kit you have, tests for chloromine/chlorine or not...? Really should pick one up if you don't. Then again goldfish are pretty tuff.

[sasha299]

Thanks. I'm bummed but figured that was it. I'm going to use some sodium ascorbate that I have in my medicine chest.