Dodged A Bullet!

[This Younger Spouse]

Two days ago, my fully cycled and maturing 55-gallon tested at:

Ammonia: 0.0 ppm
Nitrite 0.0 ppm
Nitrate 15.0 ppm

This morning, the durn thing tested at:

Ammonia: .50 ppm
Nitrite .25 ppm
Nitrate 30.0 ppm

Zoiks!

Did an immediate 90 percent water change, and will monitor. Will test this afternoon after the filter fully mixes the tank, and do additional WCs as needed.

Two things occur to me. Shortly before the test two days ago, I added half a dozen aquatic plants, and some leaves weren't in good shape. Perhaps decomposition added some ammonia. Also, it's been a challenge to convince the Jack Dempseys and Firemouths that floating cichlid pellets are food, so some of that has gone to waste in the last week, also likely adding to the ammonia. Not to mention they are messy flake eaters in general. Yesterday, I cut up two earthworms, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, and fed them. They were enthusiastically eaten immediately.

There was a fair amount of detritus, both plant and food, when I vacuumed the gravel/sand during the water change.

The only other residents in the tank are a hybrid Synodontis cat and a 5-inch BN pleco. My plan at this point is to rehome the Firemouths or return them to the LFS for credit. I'll probably also return one of the JDs and look for a male to go with the remaining one. All four cichlids range from 2.5 to 3 inches.

Regardless my fish trading intentions, you have an idea of the current bioload of the tank.

Do you think I'm on track with my reasoning as to why the spike? Are there other scavengers that can help out with some of the food load due to the messy-eating cichlids that will thrive in a cichlid tank?

As a rant, I could go off on how our LFS (they sell fish supplies only, not fish) got in an expired API Master Kit when we ordered one. I just saw this morning that the chemicals expired last summer. I don't really see how that could throw off water tests over the course of two days. Just irritating.

Also, the fish this morning showed absolutely none of the signs of stress I associate with an ammonia spike. They were behaving and eating normally, with no clenched fins or rapid breathing. As a further measure, I'm going to experiment with feeding them less often. Because they are young and growing, I've been feeding them about four times a day. Very small portions of flakes, so it's all consumed except for the messiness, but I think it's sensible to drop that down to once per day. I won't feed them again today.

Thanks!

 

[eaglesaquarium]

It makes pretty good sense to me. A lot of plants will "melt" when they are transferred and will create excess ammonia. The standard recommendation when adding them is to remove any dead/dying leaves as possible. Then continue to monitor them and remove any leaves as you notice them dying.


I've been battling some anacharis that just refuses to grow in my tank. Some of it looks fabulous (and has been a spot for my cories to spawn), while others just melt and fill the bottom of my tank with detritus. I have been vaccing it up every 3 days or so recently. Annoying, but the fact that the cories have taken to it so well to spawn on it (right in the front of the tank where I can easily see the eggs!) is too nice an event not to continue to try growing it. I've found one spot that it is thriving, and I will experiment with other spots later. I don't need to buy any more of the stuff now though, because the one spot is absolutely growing like gangbusters!


Yeah, I would not feed for at least a full day - maybe two days. Keep an eye on the levels for a few more days and be certain to remove any uneaten food soon after feeding.

 

[This Younger Spouse]

This morning:

Ammonia .3 to .4 ppm
Nitrite 0.0 ppm
Nitrate 5-10 ppm

Immediate 90 percent water change done right after testing. More testing in an hour or so after the tank mixes more thoroughly, with another test this evening.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

With a 90% WC, the levels should be very well lowered the ammonia... down to about 0.03 - 0.04 ppm.


Keep your eye on it, and keep up the water changes... you'll make it.

 

[This Younger Spouse]

I think it'll be fine, too, but I'm not considering the bullet dodged quite yet. Perhaps tomorrow. OK, maybe Saturday.

 

[This Younger Spouse]

Hmmm, just tested again for ammonia only.

Looks like .25 ppm. I thought it should be lower than that an hour after a 90 percent change, so I tested a bit of leftover tap water/Stress Coat still in the bucket. It tested at .25 ppm.

Now, every one of our API Master Kit chemicals expired last year, well before we bought the kit. We ordered it from the local pet supplies store, and are going to take it back there and compare and see if the chemicals in the one they have on their shelf are expired. If they are not expired, we'll be getting an exchange. If they also are expired, we'll inquire about a free reorder.

We're more than a little bit suspicious about these durn chemicals. The bottle of Stress Coat doesn't expire for two more years.

 

[This Younger Spouse]

Well, the other API Master Kit on the shelf also was expired. Going to be ordering the Salifert test kits tomorrow, and will do at least two more 90 percent water changes on the 55-gallon, and probably actually one per day until the kit gets here.

Just because the chemicals had expired by a few months on the API kit, that doesn't mean the tests were inaccurate. Better safe than sorry. I do feel kinda naked, though. I was growing really attached to the test kit.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Did you get the store to test your water for you? (or were their test kits expired too?)

 

[This Old Spouse]

This is a feed store and greenhouse. They don't have any tanks or fish, just a very few fish supplies, like expired API Master Test Kits, nets, and bacteria-in-a-bottle.

The good news is that often they'll order in special requests. But we did get our money back for the first API kit.

 

[This Younger Spouse]

Did you get the store to test your water for you? (or were their test kits expired too?)

There are no fish stores in town, only fish supply stores, so none of them have their own testing kits. This little town's motto is: "The end of the road." No kidding.

 

[Sesshis_grl]

Could it be the filter? I had a small spike this week and I blame my filter. It wasn't producing the right amount of water and I think in turn wasn't cleaning the tank that well.

 

[This Younger Spouse]

Could it be the filter? I had a small spike this week and I blame my filter. It wasn't producing the right amount of water and I think in turn wasn't cleaning the tank that well.

Now that right there is very interesting.

When I got the ammonia and nitrite spike, one of the first things I did was take the second set of filter cartridges (each side of the dual filter can handle two cartidges for a total of four), added ammo-reducing chips and put them in the filter. So both slots on each side were being used for the first time. And the mature media sponges were still stuffed in there behind the back cartriedges.

Never even occurred to me that I might be impeding flow enough to keep the tank from being adequately filtered.

A case of adding too many remedies, perhaps. So after consulting TOS, I removed the latest cartridges with the ammo chips. The media on those cartridges is pretty fine, whereas the cartridges already in there are coarse media. What a difference that made immediately in the flow. Turned a stream into a set of rapids. And the mature media sponges are still in there, of course.

Too bad our returned test kit is gone, but I'm planning another 90 percent water change tomorrow a.m.

 

[This Younger Spouse]

The filter, BTW, is an Aqua-Tech 30-60, with a max tank size of 60 gallons and a flow of 330 gallons/hour.

 

[Sesshis_grl]

I hope it gets back on track for you. I know I'm still doing partial water changes just to make sure every things cool

 

[This Younger Spouse]

Well it's looking like we won't have a viable test kit until the end of the week. I'm doing another 90 percent change on the 55 gallon right now. Luckily, all four of our other tanks are established with good numbers and patterns, and simple routine weekly WCs should keep those fine.

I'm down to feeding my cichlids in the 55 one time per day, and have been using waxworms, which are sold around here as live bait for fishing. They are a bit bigger than fly maggots, and the cichlids gobble them readily. Plus, I can put one in the tank and watch which fish gets it, and then put the next one in a different location so a different fish nabs that one, and so on. One or two waxies per fish per feeding. Which means less wasted food to break down and produce ammonia.