Mystery ammonia in new tank with some old filter media and plants.

[CT_]

So i got a new bigger tank (14g)  and set it up and let it sit with some plants for about 4 days (not for any particular reason) before moving 3 guppies in.  i figured plants, 14g, 3 guppies water's good.  the next day I dipped a test strip in because "why not" and I saw 1ppm nitrate, very odd with new water, so i checked ammonia and had 0.5-1.0 ammonia too.  The rate i'm feeding my fish (10-20mg/day) it would take weeks to get 1ppm ammonia from feeding with 0 cycle.  So where's the ammonia coming from?

 

here's the details:

tap water: 0/0/0 nitrogens. pretty soft, I add a bit of equilibrium to get gh 5-6.

I started the tank with new hardscape and petco gravel substrate but moved a java fern in from the old tank and a 6" "log" with anubias nana petitte from the old tank.  I also took the 3 week old sponge filter from the old HOB and put it in the new HOB with about 2 golf balls worth of substrate in a nylon stocking.  I also added a bottle of Tetra safe start after I noticed the ammonia.

In addition to the plants above I added 2 plants from tissue culture bacopa and monte carlo. and one val from co-op.  The val came in a bit banged up but it seems pretty delicate to handle.  The new growth on the val looks great but the old leaves are starting to yellow and brown.

For ferts I started with 6-ish root tabs under the rooting plants and a single squirt of easy green at the very beginning none since.

After finding the ammonia i've been doing 20-30% water changes daily and I added one of those ammonia removing sponges that seems to have done nothing.

I'm still up to 0.5-1ppm ammonia right now.  Could it be the val thats releasing all that ammonia?  should I just proactively tirm all the old growth?  Are there any other sources I'm not thinking of?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MJV Aquatics]

24 minutes ago, CT_ said:

I also took the 3 week old sponge filter from the old HOB and put it in the new HOB with about 2 golf balls worth of substrate in a nylon stocking.

Was the above mis-typed?

24 minutes ago, CT_ said:

For ferts I started with 6-ish root tabs under the rooting plants and a single squirt of easy green at the very beginning none since.

What kind of root tabs? I ask because osmocote gelcaps are popular, but release a lot of ammonia.

[CT_]

co-op root tabs. 

That wasn't a typo but maybe let me clarify.  I originally threw out the cartridge from my HOB and replaced it with some cut-to-size co-op sponge like cory suggested in one of his videos. 

That used and three-week-seasoned sponge went into the HOB of the new tank.

[CT_]

For posterity sake I'll update this thread.  I decided to just trim anything that looked like it wasn't going to make it (basically all the growth from the nursery).  It's been 16 hours and my ammonia is going down now.  It could be my bacteria is catching up or it could be that was my ammonia source.  Either way good news and maybe food for thought on new tanks with new plants (NOT saying don't add plants).