Gravel Cleaning

[arobinson1984]

I have a 125 ltr tank and is possibly overstocked (see the list in my sig)

I do a 30 ltr water change every sunday (about 25%) and clean the gravel at the same time.

I've never had a prob before with my water stats, the tank has been running about a year and I used to clean gravel monthly but started doing it weekly.

My readings using the API master kit are:

PH: 7.6
Ammonia : 0.25
Nitrite : 0.25
Nitrate : 10

The ammonia and nitrite always used to be 0 but lately have been slightly higher at around 0.25, could this be due to overcleaning of the gravel? or do you reckon the tank is slightly overstocked and I prob need to do 2 weekly water changes?

Andy

 

[fatheadminnow]

It is most likely due to the over cleaning.

Autotrophic bacteria do not live in the water column, but in our filters. Over time, if the gravel is left uncleaned, or cleaned very little or goes without cleaning for long periods of time, the Autotrophic bacteria will start to colonize on the substrate and decor as well.

What has happened is by you cleaning the gravel every week now, you have wiped out that particular bacteria colony that has grown on your substrate.

What should I do next?

It is good to pick a cleaning schedule and stick to it.

So now you are cleaning the gravel once a week, this is good, now you have to stick to that.

How should I treat the ammonia and nitrite spike?

Treat this the same way you would treat a fish-in cycle.

You have a good test kit, so do water changes to keep the ammonia and nitrite down as close to zero as possible, and eventually you will colonize more bacteria in your filter to take the place of the bacteria that you have lost.

Make sure to stick to your new cleaning schedule, do water changes to keep the water parameters in check, and it should not be long until there is enough bacteria in your filter to take care of it.

-FHM

 

[arobinson1984]

Thanks for the reply,

I thought that may be the reason I was having a little spike in the ammonia and nitrite levels, I'll keep to the cleaning gravel once a week and I'll do water changes twice a week for now and keep my eye on the levels.

I was a bit worried the tank may be a bit overstocked, although next month I'm going to get an eheim 2026 external filter and hydor external heater so once seeded then it would prob cope better than the built in jewul filter I'm using now and I'll eventually remove the internal casing and filter / heater adding that little bit more room and water

Andy

 

[fatheadminnow]

Your welcome!

-FHM