Keep having trouble with Ammonia. I don't understand :(

[AnalogHedgehog]

I have a 55 gallon tank with 4 axies about 7-8" (still young). I have a couple ghost shrimp in to help with algae, but that's it. I have an Eheim 250 classic canister filter. The tank has fully cycled twice now (I screwed up and cleaned it too much at one point) and for some reason I cannot keep my ammonia down. It was good for about a week after the second cycle then it started rising again. I clean up all of the uneaten food and as much waste as I can once a day. I don't see any dead shrimp anywhere or any other cause of ammonia. I am at my wits end.

When I measured last night the ammonia level was 0.2. When I checked tonight it was 1.2. I'm about to do a water change again, but how do I stop this?!?!?

 

[ChristineB]

Is it filled up all the way? 4 axies is the max for a tank that size, so you'll need your full water volume and to avoid over-feeding. I also suggest lots of live plants. I have 3 ribbed newts with similarly high waste output in a 50-gallon. Even with several plants it took 5 weeks to cycle. If your tank is really fully cycled yet ammonia is building up, you need either more water volume, more space for beneficial bacteria (ceramic filter media?), or more plants to help water quality. Good luck!!

 

[Isabella]

Try adding duckweed to your tank. Duckweed is a floating plant that looks like a bunch of little clovers. It also helps keep the tank dark. Duckweed helps A LOT with ammonia levels. It's also dirt-cheap. You can get a bag of it for like five cents online. Good luck!

 

[KCKme]

Duckweed is a great idea. I had trouble keeping it as the intake pipe from my eheim canister filter sucked it all in over the course of a few weeks. Would add 2 large sponge filters, the hydrosponge IV to add space for the nitrates to grow.

Also what dechlorinator are you using and what test kit are you using? Asking as I had a fully cycled tank that did something similar and come to find out there was a conflict between the test kit and the type of declorinator. The tank cycle was just fine but the test was showing outrageous ammonia levels. This bit of information was in some threads on this site - lots of knowledgable folks in this group!