Helped out friend last night by giving him one of my media pads to get started. This morning tested my water and its showing a low trace of ammonia. How long will this happen and when will my tank get back to normal. Should I change water now.
Traces Of Ammonia After Giving Away Media
- Thread starter tez2k007
- Start date
If ammonia levels go above 0.25 PPM, then you need to change water.
How are you testing?
At the moment, you don't have quite enough bacteria to cope with the load, but in my experience, things should stabalize fairly quickly as the bacteria colonize the new pad. Just keep monitoring your ammonia and nitrites over then next few days and change water as required.
Sure everything will be fine.
How are you testing?
At the moment, you don't have quite enough bacteria to cope with the load, but in my experience, things should stabalize fairly quickly as the bacteria colonize the new pad. Just keep monitoring your ammonia and nitrites over then next few days and change water as required.
Sure everything will be fine.
I have the proper liquid test kits. Hope it is just a few days.
Hi tez2k007 
Look at it like this... Most of the beneficial bacteria in your tank lives in the filter. True, a few can be found in the substrate and on the other tank surfaces, but the greatest majority of them reside in the filter media. If you remove half of the media, you have essentially given away half the bacteria that have been clearing the ammonia and nitrites from your tank.
They will quickly reproduce to attain the proper numbers needed to consume all the available food (ammonia and nitrite), but this will take a few days, maybe a week or so. You can help by doing water changes as needed and by feeding your fish lightly to keep the amount of their waste down. If you keep on top of it, all your fish will be fine and so will your friend's fish. He will need to do the same thing as you are doing until his water tests free of these chemicals.
You are a good friend indeed!
Look at it like this... Most of the beneficial bacteria in your tank lives in the filter. True, a few can be found in the substrate and on the other tank surfaces, but the greatest majority of them reside in the filter media. If you remove half of the media, you have essentially given away half the bacteria that have been clearing the ammonia and nitrites from your tank.
They will quickly reproduce to attain the proper numbers needed to consume all the available food (ammonia and nitrite), but this will take a few days, maybe a week or so. You can help by doing water changes as needed and by feeding your fish lightly to keep the amount of their waste down. If you keep on top of it, all your fish will be fine and so will your friend's fish. He will need to do the same thing as you are doing until his water tests free of these chemicals.
You are a good friend indeed!
The theoretical doubling time for your bacteria is only about 24 hours but lets face it, things never work out perfectly. I would expect the mini-cycle to end in less than a week but more than a day.
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