New Tank Syndrome ??

[achinni69]

I recently purchased a 75 gallon long tank with Fluval FX4 canister, Eheim 200 watt heater, USB LED blue-white lights, Wave maker, African Cichlid gravel, driftwood, rocks and some artificial pieces and plants as well as an air stone coming through a buddah head sculpture. I ran the filtration for three days without any actvity. Then i added FRITZ turbo charge bacteria for two days and water until a week before introducing four juvenile Cichlids 1 -1.5 inches being a Jack dempsey, Black Convict, Blue Acara and Rainbow Cichlid. Everything was fine for a week or ten days but having minor "AMMONIA SPIKE" .
Water readings have been as follows: temperature around 78 F, PH 7.4, Ammonia 0.5-0.75 ppm, Nitrite 0.0 and Nitrate 2.5-3 ppm.
Have increased water changes from 25% to 50% and have been treating water with Seachem Prime water conditioner and Stablility bacteria additive with aquarium salt with the changes. Yesterday was 50% change with have the substrate vacuumed. I am reducing quantity of food by 50% today.
Is there anything else i can do to get rid of ammonia totally?

[bdmminer]

Reduce feeding to as little as you feel comfortable with lots of water changes to keep it down, but do not, do not vacuum your gravel. You are trying to grow as much bacteria as possible in your tank. That bacteria is your "biological filter" and grows on all surfaces of your tank and vacuuming the gravel can dislodge the growing bacteria and scrub them of of it.

When starting a new tank one thing I always recommend is taking the filter from an already established tank and cleaning it out in the new tank, all of the stuff that comes off is full of the bacteria that you need for the nitrogen cycle. If you do not have an established tank I would go to a local fish store (not Petsmart, Petco etc.) and ask if you can clean one of their filters into a bag and take it home to your tank.

This method is an instant start and I have used it multiple times to set up tanks as large as 180 gallons from dry to full of fish in less than 2 hours with no die offs or ammonia spikes.