Sometimes adding specimens to an already heavily-stocked aquarium will be too much for existing biological filtrationYou come home from a long, vexing day at work only to notice that the fish in your marine aquarium are all gasping at the surface of the water or cowering in a corner of the tank and behaving lethargically. Panicked, you promptly test your water parameters and discover that ammonia is present. The tank has long been cycled, so no ammonia should be detectable. What gives? When an ammonia spike occurs in an already-cycled system, one of the following circumstances is usually the underlying cause: #1: Overstocking Adding “just one more” specimen to an aquarium that’s already close to being maxed out with respect to stocking capacity can easily lead to a situation in which more dissolved waste is produced than the biological filter can accommodate. It’s always better to stock lightly—even if that means the tank looks more sparse than you might prefer (the usual state of my aquariums)—than to push your luck with the bioload. #2: Overfeeding Excessive feeding of fish or invertebrates, which often results in uneaten food left decomposing in the system, is another surefire way to overwhelm an established system’s biofilter and cause ammonia to spike.
The post 5 Common Causes of Marine Aquarium Ammonia Spikes appeared first on reefs.com.