How can I tell if I have too much ammonia or nitrates in my water? And what can I do to fix it. The PH is neutral.

[Bobbie 1]

How can I tell if I have too much nitrate or ammonia in my water. The PH is neutral. I have a Cubey tank. It's supposed to be 15 gallons, I think it's less. I see no debris in the sand. I change water every week, including filters. Condition new water, test PH,. I never see the fish eat. I've tried everything except live food. I have seven tetras and two snails. Had an aquarium for years and never had a problem. Help!

 

[GaryE]

The only way to tell for sure is to purchase a test kit.

One thing jumps out - "including filters". In an average tank, a lot of the nitrifying bacteria and archaea will be in the filter media, and changing that media can be disastrous. What kind of filter do you have? People may be able to help you modify it to improve it radically. They're generally designed to make money for the company, and we can work around that and make them more stable and efficient easily.

What kind of tetras?

 

[bgarthe35 53]

How long has the tank been running? Getting test kits is absolutely needed as GaryE stated. You mention the need to check ammonia and nitrate (both are at opposite ends of the nitrogen cycle). Is your tank cycled? Oh…..what percentage of water do you change each week?
Lastly….since you mentioned pH, that is another reason for test kits. Checking KH is much more important (imho) than pH. KH will determine your pH stability which is critical in that pH stability (no matter the number) is of paramount importance.

Regarding filters, weekly cleaning is generally way too often to be doing so. Your filter type, size, media, and bioload will determine how often to change. And cleaning filters can wreck havoc on aquarium water parameters, especially with smaller tanks.

 

[TwoTankAmin29]

Just for another point of view. I have been rinsing my bio-media weekly for the last 25 years. It is not so easy to get the bacteria out of the media as some believe, It is pretty well attached and it takes a decent effort to dislodge it. Even rinsing it out under clorinated tap water will not do much damage to the bacteria.

The bacteria can be found on all sorts of hard surfaces in a tank. They need to be out of the direct light, they need to have the things they need delivered to them, so circulation in a tank matters if terms of where the bacteria cab thrive. The most common place outside of filter media for them is the top portion of one's substrate. By the point this is an inch deep, there is normally not enough oxygen present to support aerobic microorganisms.

Understanding how the bacteria work helps us to know what is going on in our tanks. The amount of bacteria we have in any tank is in direct proportion to the amount of ammonia the tanks creates. Cycling is the process of getting the bacterial colonies to the size needed to handle that amount of ammonia. When there is more ammonia than the current bacteria can handle, they speed up their reproduction until there are enough to handle that. On the other hand, if ammonia creation is reduced, the reproduction slows to below the death rate and the colonies shrink. And this applies to all the bacteria in a tank no matter where it lives.

The above is why it is important that we not allow the biomedia to get clogged. But if it starts to clog and as a result becomes less effective, the bacteria elsewhere in the tank which are not impeded will reproduce faster to take up the newly available ammonia because of some loss of them in the media. And then there are live plants, These use ammonia and they become part of the way a tank will handle the total ammonia being created. Live plants reduce the need for bacteria to some degree but never by 100%.

One can have a cycled tank with no live plants in it. But there will never be a tank with enough live plants such that there is no nitrifying bacteria at work.

 

[Essjay34 149]

I change water every week, including filters.

I took that to mean he changes water and changes media every week

 

[Bobbie 1]

I have 7 neon tetras, now, and two snails and a Corey catfish. I do a partial water change every week and clean only the top part of the filter as it collects all the uneaten food. I have charcoal, bio beads, and the top black thick hard sponge, which is what I rinse in the water I've removed from the tank. When I vacuum I don't see much debris, but I do have brown, slimy algae on the glass and decorations. Three sides of the tank are blacked out. My PH is neutral. The temperature is 77 degrees. Still I'm losing fish?

 

[Essjay34 149]

As other members have said, you need to buy test kits for ammonia and nitrite to see if they are above zero - levels of either above zero can kill fish.


In your other thread you said the tank is new and is 10 gallons. if you didn't do a fishless cycle before getting fish you are now doing a fish-in cycle. This results in high ammonia followed by high nitrite. You need to be able to test for those two killers.

 

[Naughts35 107]

Some fish stores will test your water for free or a small charge. That may be prudent as a first step. Make sure they test for ammonia as well as nitrate and nitrite. Ask for the results as a number and unit, rather than just ‘ok/low/high’. Then post the results here so people can let you know if they are causing the latency to feed.
How long have the fish been like this?