What is an ammonia spike?

Question

I ask a question about my Betta's behavior.Most everyone answered,

Could be an ammonia spike.What does this mean and what do I do about it?

Answer 1

Animals produce waste, which contains a significant amount of ammonia which is toxic. Some of the ammonia will then combine with hydrgen ions in the tank to produce ammonium, which is even worse. Thus, when you add animals to a tank, you'll get an ammonia spike.

Bacteria within the tank will use ammonia and ammonium as a food source, releasing nitrite as a by-product. Nitrite is toxic, but other bacteria within the tank will use nitrite as a food source, releasing nitrate as a by-product. Nitrate is toxic, but it isn't nearly as bad as the previous chemicals.

Because bacterial colonies that process the waste take time to grow, it's important to stock aquariums slowly. If you put a lot of fish in a tank all at once, the amount of waste produced will be too much for the colonies to handle, and the fish will be swimming in their own toxic waste products while the colonies to process it. The ammonia increase from this would be drastic and sudden. This phenomenon is called an ammonia spike. When a tank is killed because it was stocked too early or quickly, the phenomenon is called "New Tank Syndrome."

An ammonia spike can also be caused if an animal dies in a place you can't see, and you don't take it out of the tank; ammonia is released as the body decays.

What to do about ammonia spikes? You pretty much have to wait them out. Give time for the bacterial colonies to grow enough to process the amount of waste that the fish are producing. In the meantime, any animals in the tank are going to suffer.

If the ammonia stays high for too long, or if the spike is too strong, damage to the gills is all-but-inevitable. If you can find yourself a small bottle of SeaChem Prime (a decholorinator), you can add a little bit to the water; the fish will form a layer of slime in response, which will afford a tiny bit of protection from the ammonia, but this is not a long-term solution.

Answer 2

Fish p**p and breaking down food or dead fish/snails in a fish tank causes ammonia to build up in the tank.

Over time, Nitrite will start to eat the ammonia. Then nitrate will eat the nitrite. This is called the Nitrogen (or ammonia) Cycle.

All tanks will cycle one you put fish in them. Once a tank is cycled, it shouldn't have any ammonia or nitrites in the water, and nitrates will build up in between changes.

An ammonia spike is basically whenever ammonia is present in the tank. This could be because your tank hasn't cycled (which would be the case in a new tank), because the tank's been over cleaned and all cycling bacteria have died, or because the ammonia levels rise above the levels the bacteria can cope with. This usually happens when extra fish are added, there's food build up, or there's a dead fish or snail in the tank.

The best way to deal with an amonia spike is water changes. How much water you change and how often will depend on the level of ammonia. (Your petshop should be able to test your water, or you can buy tests pretty cheaply.)

If the ammonia is low (under 2ppm) then a 25% water change every day until you get a 0 reading should be ok.

Anything more than that, I'd be doing a 50% water change every day until it hit 0.

In extreme cases the shock of a 100% water change is less dangerous than taking the ammonia levels down slowly. But be aware that a 100% water change could interfere with your tanks cycling process, and may result in another ammonia spike a few days down the track.