Water quality check , can anyone read this?

[snailaquarium]

well I did a ammonia test on the small tank which has only the baby shrimp and a few moss balls with guppy grass and that gave a zero result, so it must be all the snails doing this.

 

[Essjay]

Can you run through exactly what's in the tank with the ammonia reading, both creatures and plants; and what is your water change regime on this tank.

 

[snailaquarium]

Can you run through exactly what's in the tank with the ammonia reading, both creatures and plants; and what is your water change regime on this tank.

The last big water change was on 22nd Feb at which point the previous amano shrim[ I've had since july died. The water changes are usually 1 liter twice a week.

Today i've added two more moss balls and a small plant. So now tank has a medium size and large size moss ball with two more small ones, guppy grass and two different plants - this is with 2 amano shrimp since last saturday and 1 neocaridina. There are about 15 ramshorn snails which are big. They keep on laying eggs.

 

[Essjay]

How big is the tank? Ideally you need to do at least half the tank volume every week. You don't say how big the tank is so I don't know what % your 1 litre changes are.

With 15 ramshorn snails, the tank needs to be a fair size. I have seen 20 gallons/76 litres as the minimum size for them, assuming you mean the big ramshorns rather that the tiny ones a few mm across. Others suggest 5 to 10 gallons (20 to 40 litres) but that's usually for 1 snail not 15.

 

[snailaquarium]

How big is the tank? Ideally you need to do at least half the tank volume every week. You don't say how big the tank is so I don't know what % your 1 litre changes are.

With 15 ramshorn snails, the tank needs to be a fair size. I have seen 20 gallons/76 litres as the minimum size for them, assuming you mean the big ramshorns rather that the tiny ones a few mm across. Others suggest 5 to 10 gallons (20 to 40 litres) but that's usually for 1 snail not 15.

Tank is one gallon, from your message I'm guessing the snails are too much,

 

[Essjay]

Yes, that does sound like the problem. If the snails were those tiny ones usually referred to as one of the pest snails, 15 of those would be fine. But not 15 of the type that grow big, even one would be too much for 1 gallon (3.76 litres).

To get the ammonia right down would mean doing a large water change - leaving just enough water to keep the shrimps covered - every couple of days. If you feed the shrimps & snails, feed them less.
Or move them to a bigger tank and keep just the shrimps in there.

 

[snailaquarium]

Well i think i bought too many snails however they do brred quickly. After a big water change yesterday the ammonia level is now at 1-2 which is still listed as dangerous, I was just thinking if ammonia is in the snail pop then its going to be inbetween all the little silver stones i have in there. I may have been feeding them too much, the problem is I didnt want the snails to eat the plants, I've been thinking it would be good if I could get the plans to somehow hover in the aquarium so the sanils cant get to them, the size of the ramshorn snails are about 1cm diameter.

 

[Essjay]

Fish and snail poop breaks down to form ammonia, so the poop should be removed from the tank at every water change. And the filter (if there is one) should also be cleaned every 2 weeks, or every 1 week if there is a lot of goo building up in it.

You can use floating plants. Water sprite will be too big for a tank this size, but one of the smaller floating plants (water lettuce, Salvinia) would be OK.

In a 1 gallon tank, 15 snails even at 1 cm (0.4 inches) is too many. You need to remove most of them or get a bigger tank. If you choose to remove them, be careful how you dispose of them as they should be allowed to get in the waterways. Crush them and either feed them to fish if you have any or put them in the rubbish bin.