jcarlilesiu
Aquarium Advice Addict
Hi everybody, here is the situation. I have a 10 gal tank with all the things you see below in it. As you can tell, I have a pretty hefty bio-load. I was consistantly running about 40 PPM nitrate despite weekly 30% water changes. I deceided to try and get them down for the sake of the fish. Last week I did 3 25% water changes in 6 days. It worked, I was able to get my nitrates down to about 8 PPM. I just tested my water and here are the readings:
Ammonia: .25 PPM
Nitrites: 0 PPM
Nitrates: 20 PPM
It looks as though I took out too much nitrates and essentially put a hurting on the ability to control the Ammonia, hence a sort of re-cycle starter. Now my nitrates are back up and my fish are looking kind of stressed (aggressive, heavy breathing). My question is, should i do another water change in order to get the Ammonia down, which ultimatly could take out more nitrates and further the delima and hurt the established cycle more. Or should I allow the tank to take its course and allow the Nitrates to rebuild to get rid of the Ammonia, and re-establish the cycled status. your help is greatly appriciated.
On a second note, my filter media is extremely dirty, I intended on taking it out and rinsing it tonight as it is backing up into the back part of the HOB filter, i.e. creating a 'dam'... Based on what i said above, im afraid this can also remove necessary nitrates and further the degression of the cycle.
help!
Ammonia: .25 PPM
Nitrites: 0 PPM
Nitrates: 20 PPM
It looks as though I took out too much nitrates and essentially put a hurting on the ability to control the Ammonia, hence a sort of re-cycle starter. Now my nitrates are back up and my fish are looking kind of stressed (aggressive, heavy breathing). My question is, should i do another water change in order to get the Ammonia down, which ultimatly could take out more nitrates and further the delima and hurt the established cycle more. Or should I allow the tank to take its course and allow the Nitrates to rebuild to get rid of the Ammonia, and re-establish the cycled status. your help is greatly appriciated.
On a second note, my filter media is extremely dirty, I intended on taking it out and rinsing it tonight as it is backing up into the back part of the HOB filter, i.e. creating a 'dam'... Based on what i said above, im afraid this can also remove necessary nitrates and further the degression of the cycle.
help!