Minor Disaster

[saltynay]

I think I might of killed my filter bacteria whilst washing it yesterday must of let it dry out a bit too much as I did use old tank water . I also have run out of dechlor and have only 1 litre of OLD water that would of been dechlor'd plus no mature filter media apart from the pond which I could leave the pads in if that would help. Just did an ammonia test and its between 1.5-3mg/l for sure approx 2mg/l.

Fortunately I seem to of caught it early so yeah ideas?

 

[WILDER]

Any parasites in your pond. If not you could use some sponges from there.
How did the sponge dry out so fast.

 

[saltynay]

No filter in my pond its au naturel self contained ecosystem and probably raught with parasites and thinking about it now will probably cause more harm then good. I am not sure the sponges dried out just the only thing I can think of took me about 3-5 mins to clean them squeezing them in a jug of old tank water then put to the side but in a puddle from when I first brought them out of the tank repeated twice then put it all back together and back in the tank. The only other thing that has changed is I added 3 assasin snails yesterday but they wouldn't have caused a ph crash I think.

 

[WILDER]

You are meant only to touch one sponge at a time and just rinse slightly.
Could of rinsed them to much.
So your ph has changed, what was the ph before and after.
Ph can alter with ammonia and nitrite readings.

 

[saltynay]

7.2 it was 7.1 before so not much difference. I don't have a nitrate or nitrite kit. The ironic thing is I am going to be building my super filter in 3 days

 

[WILDER]

That ph reading ok. Nothing to worry about.
Take a sample of your water to the lfs and tell them to write the readings down for you.
I would strongly suggest investing is some liquid test kits.

You can do small water changes without declorinator but not large water changes.
Increase aeration.

 

[saltynay]

I have a Ph test and an ammonia one just ran out with nitrates/ites atm. How would I increase aeration? Would throwing in a oxygen tablet work?

 

[WILDER]

Yes oxygen tablet increase aeration.
Or you can lower the water level so the filter outlet hits the water harder to create more aeration in the tank.
Or just turn filter flow up on your filter if you can do that.

 

[saltynay]

So when I get the dechlor tomoz should I get one with an ammolock like ability in it

 

[WILDER]

Not sure about the ammo lock never used it.
Ask in tropical discussion.

 

[Truck]

So when I get the dechlor tomoz should I get one with an ammolock like ability in it

either buy ammo lock or stress zyme + note the +!!!

both will remove ammonia whilst doubling up as a dechlorinator

 

[saltynay]

I haven't added anything yet but have a reading of 0.5mg/l....... strange the shrimp are not as red anymore (sign that they are distressed and possibly dying supposedly) and the endlers have got there colours back in full.....

 

[WILDER]

Water change.