Doh!

[tttnjfttt]

When I feed my fish, I often turn the filter down to let my fish eat the food before it gets blown around and sucked up. I just finished cleaning my fish tank, and found that I had forgotten to turn my filter back up after feeding my fish yesterday. The filter has been running at a trickle for over 24 hours!!! I tested for ammonia and nitrite and found an ammonia reading of about .75

How long should I give my filter to deal with this ammonia before deciding that I've killed my bacteria and starting to panick?

Or was this whole thing caused by the end of my bacterial bloom?

 

[Sky042]

I've done that before.
You haven't killed your bacteria you just haven't processed enough water to keep up with the waste.

You probably won't see a spike any higher than that.

When I did it with my emperor 280 on my 37G I saw ammonia around .50 and nitrites about .25~.50 they never went any higher. I'm positive you'll be fine....maybe just hold off feeding for a day or two.

 

[tttnjfttt]

Thanks. I've got to find some way to remember to put the filter back on...maybe hold the food till I turn it back up.

I tested the water again about 3 hours later, and it is closer to .5. Maybe I'll do another partial water change before bed. I did notice a big change in the tiger barbs behavior after the water change, they started acting alot more like themselves.