Dead plants

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It's all good now. Ran an HOB in an established tank for 9 days, moved it to the new tank (with some media from the established tank's filter), dosed with ammonia (4 ppm), went to zero in 3 days, dosed back to 4 ppm, nitrites went from zero to 1, and then 3 days later both ammonia and nitrites back to zero and nitrates are 20-40. A little over two weeks total time. I attribute a lot of it to seeding and prepping the filter.
So yes, move some of the filter media from the 10g to the new tank.

Oh, will do! Also do I put it behind the cartridges so that the water flow carries some of the bacteria on the old filter to the new ones?
 
Oh, will do! Also do I put it behind the cartridges so that the water flow carries some of the bacteria on the old filter to the new ones?

Yes. I believe that is the idea though I am not really sure how it works. I am guessing the beneficial bacteria slough off the the original colony and onto the new media. Good luck.
 
Should I change some of my water to bring the ammonia down a little?? I took out all the "dead" plants, or plants that were all brown! And if I do, do I just put the tap water in? I don't have any de-chlorinator.
 
To attempt to answer the original question.... yes, I do believe that decaying plant matter will produce ammonia.
This is unlikely the issue, but you should probably remove dead plants anyways.

Is it possible you did a water change and forgot to add water treatment? Chlorine will wipe out any BB you have.
 
Honestly, I would just let it be for now. If you're running fishless there's really not too much to worry about, unless you're running stronger lighting. If you're still having ammonia problems after your BB take hold, then that's another matter.
 
To attempt to answer the original question.... yes, I do believe that decaying plant matter will produce ammonia.
This is unlikely the issue, but you should probably remove dead plants anyways.

Is it possible you did a water change and forgot to add water treatment? Chlorine will wipe out any BB you have.

All I have is conditioner. But I was afraid to add it because it said it killed ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.
 
Honestly, I would just let it be for now. If you're running fishless there's really not too much to worry about, unless you're running stronger lighting. If you're still having ammonia problems after your BB take hold, then that's another matter.

Ah ok, thank you!
 
All I have is conditioner. But I was afraid to add it because it said it killed ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.

The water treatments/conditioner typically detoxify the ammonia and nitrites. Im not sure what the actual chemical change is, but I do believe that the BB are still able to feed on the end result.
On the flip side, if you have chlorine in your water then you are killing your BB every time you do a PWC which is starting your cycling over.
 
The water treatments/conditioner typically detoxify the ammonia and nitrites. Im not sure what the actual chemical change is, but I do believe that the BB are still able to feed on the end result.
On the flip side, if you have chlorine in your water then you are killing your BB every time you do a PWC which is starting your cycling over.

Yeah, I have put in conditioner only once and that was on Monday I believe, so what would you recommend me get for water treatment besides conditioner?
 
Conditioner is fine. What these products do is sequester the ammonia so that it can't harm fish, but is still available to plants and BB. You should be adding it after every water change. Have you been?
 
Conditioner is fine. What these products do is sequester the ammonia so that it can't harm fish, but is still available to plants and BB. You should be adding it after every water change. Have you been?

I've only done 2 and the first time I did but I thought it was killing the stuff I needed so the second time I didn't but I guess I should've!
 
If you didn't the last time you added water, I definitely would. You might need to start your cycle over if the chlorination wiped out whatever BB you had.
 
If you didn't the last time you added water, I definitely would. You might need to start your cycle over if the chlorination wiped out whatever BB you had.

Ah ok, so if there's still about 4ish ppm of ammonia in there do I just put the conditioner in and let it do it's thing?
 
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