Cloudy water, Ammonia, Levamisole, Temperature

[Alesha]

At the end of August we did a treatment of Levamisole for wasting disease in our guppies in our 55-gallon tank. (It has been running for 10 months.) We repeated that treatment 2 weeks later. The last treatment was 9-12.

 

Since the first treatment, our ammonia has been out of control. I understood that with the die-off of parasites, that could affect our ammonia. So we did copious water changes with each treatment.

 

But in the 10 days since the last treatment/water change, we canNOT get our ammonia to come down to zero. We've done 3 water changes just to keep the numbers to under 3.0 ppm. We are also having a perpetual cloudiness, which I believe is an algae bloom, following a die-off of bacteria after the treatment.)

 

During this time, after the treatment, along with water changes, we have trimmed plants, removed BBA and hair algae, and cleaned the sponges (2 medium Aquarium Co-op sponges), all in an attempt to figure out what was causing ammonia to be out of control. We removed dead fish and snails promptly, as well. We also chose to remove the heater at this time. The water temp remains 73-74 at all times, according to the thermometer.

 

We also added 2 pieces of decor that had been in a previous tank and had been outside on our porch. They'd been out of that tank for 10 months, so we were not concerned that they had any live bacteria and/or parasites, etc on them.

One thing I'm wondering, if you'll notice the picture of the side view of the tank. We have both ends built up like this - with the white rock, covered by substrate. At the beginning we lost a few baby guppies down in the rocks, but as the substrate settled, the rocks have been completely covered and none of the fish, snails or loaches could get down there in the white rocks.

 

Since the 2 Levamisole treatments, I've noticed the black patches growing on the rocks. I've never had that before. I'm wondering if I killed off something that was keeping those rocks clean and now that algae(?) is affecting my ammonia levels?

My current parameters are as follows:

Ammonia - 2

Nitrate - 5

Nitrite - 0

GH - 200

Chlorine - 0

KH - 100 (although that has fluctuated greatly in the last week - from 100-180.)

pH - 7.6 (this has fluctuated from 6.8-8.0 in the last week)

I've added pictures for you to see the black algae, as well as the cloudy tank.

Any help or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!

[MickS77]

I'd say its actually a bacterial bloom with the beneficial bacteria trying to catch up from the treatments and cleaning. I would try getting more biological bacteria in the tank either from seasoned sponge filter from another tank or seasoned biological media in a HOB from another tank. You can check for a bacterial bloom vs algae bloom by putting some tank water in a white container, bowl, cup, etc. Only if it has a green tint is it algae.

[Alesha]

@MickS77, that's a good idea to add some bacteria to the tank. I have another sponge from my 20-gal that I can pop in there. 

So... to make sure I understand... these are normal ammonia levels in my tank when there is very little bacteria to take care of it?  And therefore, my tank is about to do a new cycle? My poor guppies! And shrimp...and loaches...and snails! 

Do I keep changing the water? At what level of ammonia should I do the changes?