Is having too many fish causing my tank to spike?

Request information on fish, plants or other aquarium issues.
JamieUK1
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Hi folk,

So I have a 400 litre tank setup with an external EFX 400 turning around 1400 lph with various media just the usual, An internal filter turning 1000 lph, Plenty of oxygen going through the tank and went through my fish cycle about 4 or 5 weeks ago (cloudiness, spikes ect..) then everything calmed down, Now I added 5 elephant nose fish it seemed to have spiked again my readings are as follows NO3 is 75ish and NO2 7.5ish ammonia is between 0 and 0.5 now i do have quite a lot of fish but most are small the list goes like this

5 x X-Ray Tetras
5 x Cardinal Tetras
5 x Black widows
4 x Balloon Mollies
3 x Tuxedo Guppies
4 x Dwarf Gouramis
2 x Rainbow Sharks
2 x Catfish
1 x butterfly River fish
2 x Pakistani yoyo Loaches
4 x Glowlight tetras
4 x Danios
4 x Male Swordtails
4 x Female Swordtails
6 x glass catfish
4 x hatchets
8 x Kuhli loaches
5 x Elephant Noses

Is it down to the amount of fish? I'm doing 25% water changes every 2 or 3 days and a 50% weekly while adding conditioner ect...

Any info would help as im still learning but loving the hobby, Had 5 tanks as soon as I started just couple month ago. Now down to 2 😆 🤣 😂 my 400 and her 60 litre betta tank.

Thanks in advance

Jamie.
JamieUK1
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I must add also all fish are healthy, breathing normal swimming around normal feeding normal, No sitting around the top gasping for air, They all get along just fine.
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Martinspuddle
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Greetings :] & welcome to AF-UK

To me that does seem rather a lot of fish for a aquarium that's just finished cycling but I'm old school.

Before commenting further, when did the tank finish cycling, do you have any plants, what media are you running, test results and any pictures of your setup ...we like pictures here at the forum. :]
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Andys temperate tank
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Welcome to the forum Jamie.

You have a lot of different fish with different requirements. How hard is your water?
64l kitchen tank: 16 golden tetra.
5ft 425L: 7 blue angel fish, 30 rummie nose tetra, 20 black neon tetra, 1 longfin bristlenose plec, 2 corydoras sterbai, 2 SAE.
JamieUK1
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Hi guys,

My cycle ended about a month or so ago and all levels were fine, The water is about 6.8 - 7.2


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JamieUK1
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Media im running is coarse and filter floss in the internal, External is balls on the bottom, 1st tray coarse and fine filter floss, 2nd tray ceramic rings, 3rd tray alphafrog media.
JamieUK1
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Couple more photos
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JamieUK1
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Just some of the things I have been using to try and stabilise water


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JamieUK1
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JamieUK1
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