Frustrated ammonia staying at .25

[wildroseofky]

I have developed yet another problem with my tank. For the past week my ammonia reading is staying at .25. Nitrite stays 0, Nitrate between 4-10. I vacuum every other day. I do a 40-50% water change on Sundays and top of during the week as needed for evaporation. I use Prime to treat water. Every two weeks I take all decorations out and give it a more thorough cleaning. My filter is mounted in the middle of the tank and stuff gets pushed to the sides under the rocks and plants. I give the filter a good cleaning at water change times. I did have some dead cyno bacteria stuff in the sand and found a few dead roots in the sand and some gas pockets. I need something to stir the sand. Two of my apple snails, which I was sold as nerites but now know they aren't, are staying at the top of the tank. I keep finding one of them floating at the top of the tank with it's shell closed. After a while it burps and slowly sinks. The third one is active and going about it's business. Ghost shrimp and mollies are fine. The other two have long strings of small, rice shaped stuff trailing after them. Not eggs. There eggs are laid at the water line in clusters. That was how I figured out I have apple snails.

I did a 10 gallon water change last night. Checked water perimeters and ammonia was still .25, nitrite 0, nitrate 10, PH was 7.6. Checked faucet water before adding and everything was zero. Today still ammonia .25. I am stumped.

 

[Rivercats]

I forgot the size of your tank but how many mollies do you have? Mollys and IMO apple snails have high bio-loads and could it be they are producing more waste than your BB can convert? Do you have a HOB or canister filter? Also it could still be coming from the sand and dying cyano deep in it. There are alot of possibilities.

 

[wildroseofky]

My tank is 29 gallons. I have 1 adult and 2 three month old fry. Three apple snails and lots of ghost shrimp. I have a Aquaclear50 HOB. I stirred the sand up a lot but will do it again this evening. I have cut back on feedings in the last few weeks because I was over feeding. My Nitrates where staying in the 40 range but I removed some of the filter media and used charcoal filter pads to remove the antibiotic and large water changes when I got done getting rid of the cyno.

I really wanted nerite snails and thought that is what I was getting from my local fish store. I have never seen a nerite except in photos so I wasn't sure if what she ordered for me was right. They didn't quiet look like the photos of nerites but they were small so I thought I could be wrong. Nerites come in so many colors. They have gradually grown larger than nerites are supposed to. The largest snail is about golf ball size. Once they laid eggs, I knew I had gotten the wrong snails. Oh well. They are fun to watch.

Any suggestion for bottom dwellers that might stir up the sand? I tried khuli loaches but managed to kill them with several tank mishaps. I am thinking of some kind of pleco. Or maybe freshwater clams?

 

[Rivercats]

Stay away from clams as they can die suddenly and foul a tank really bad! Maybe a couple yo-yo loaches but they along with cory's will only get the surface stirred up. I can't think of anything off the top of my head but I know there are fish, not sure of size of tank needed that will actually bury/burrow in sand but they are messy and then you will have plant issues. Your kind of between a rock and a hard place. Wish I could be more help or have more suggestions for you.

 

[Berylla]

Keep up with the water changes and avoid deep vacuuming for two weeks. Also, feed minimally to keep the organics down. When you clean out your filters, just give them a squeeze in a bucket of tank water. Regarding your sand bed, to keep the sand from rotting, it needs to be 1/4". Or, you need to make it a deep sand bed (DSP) of at least 6". I've never done this myself, but had lengthy discussion with people who do this. With DSB's, you do not disturb the sand at all. Check it out:

Deep Sand Beds

 

[wildroseofky]

I have already cut down on feeding. I started just giving the fish a couple of flakes each a couple of times a day. They are not very happy with me LOL I give the snails and shrimp an algae pellet crumbled up at night and a pinch of Hakari First Bites for my tiny shrimplets. My snails laid eggs last night and are now moving around the tank floor. My ammonia is slowly going down. It is a very slight green color leading more to yellow. My nitrates have climbed from 5 to 10. I gave my aquaclear sponge a really good cleaning a week ago. My water flow was reduced so I took the sponge out and really rang the heck out of it in tank water. I then beat it over the edge of the bucket until no more gunk came out. Water flow improved greatly but I may have got rid of a lot of my bacteria too causing a mini cycle. I am vacuuming every day. Most of the dead cyno is gone. I have had an explosion of limpets. They cover the glass every day. I have taken to scraping them off every night trying to reduce the population. Could they be adding to the bio load? They are covering everything.



I think I am going to try again with the khuli loaches in a few weeks. have to order another impeller for my QT filter. In the meantime I am reseeding the bio sponge.

 

[DavidAl]

I vacuum every other day. [and] Every two weeks I take all decorations out and give it a more thorough cleaning. [and] I give the filter a good cleaning at water change times.

I removed some of the filter media and used charcoal filter pads to remove the antibiotic and large water changes when I got done getting rid of the cyno.

I gave my aquaclear sponge a really good cleaning a week ago. [and] I then beat it over the edge of the bucket until no more gunk came out. [and] I am vacuuming every day.

I hope your beneficial bacteria are on steroids because they have to be pretty tough to withstand all that vacuuming, thorough filter cleanings, antibiotics and beatings! Oh, and then some more vacuuming!

Less is better sometimes...


David

 

[wildroseofky]

David, my family agrees with you. LOL They keep telling me I am doing too many water changes. My tank is only about 3 months old and I want everything to be perfect. I also keep running into every new tank problem there is. First algae, then cycle crash, then planaria, and then the cyno bacteria set in. I hold my breath as I say this, things are looking better right now. My ammonia has went away. My nitrates are climbing some. That was one of the problems I was having, too high nitrates. They kept climbing to 80 with ammonia and nitrite staying 0. My plants have really taken off so they will hopefully help keep things under control.

I used filter media from my 10 gallon to seed the 29 gallon. I dosed with 4 ppm of ammonia daily until it went away in 24 hours so my bb should be good.

I vacuum a lot because I got a new tank vac that runs by batteries. It catches everything in a net and makes quick clean ups easy. I was overfeeding my mollies and they poop a lot. Then the cyno died and I have had to clean that out. Hopefully things will stabilize and I can cut back on all the cleaning.

 

[Coyne]

Banjo Catfish like to burrow in the sand.

 

[wildroseofky]

Wouldn't a banjo catfish be too big for a 29 gallon?

 

[Mloyko]

I saw somewhere that Kuhli Loaches are good for digging through sand, anyone know if that is valid?

 

[wildroseofky]

Yes they do but they need a very stable tank. I got 5 of them and all died because my water conditions kept going off. Hopefully everything will stabilize soon and I can try again.

 

[Coyne]

Wouldn't a banjo catfish be too big for a 29 gallon?

I believe they can get to be about 6" long. Ive never actually seen one in person though. There is a LFS near me that sells them, but they are always under the sand with just their tails poking out.

 

[BBradbury]

Dealing with Ammonia

Hello wild...

Whoa! A lot of info in your post. I'd deal with the ammonia issue first. If the tank chemistry was as bad a you say, then your Mollies would be dead. These fish are some of the most sensitive to poor water conditions.

I'd recommend some good ammonia filter medium. A company by the name of Acurel has filter padding that will help reduce the ammonia in the tank water. I've used it for quite a while. It's a "cut to fit" poly fiber that would work well in your Hagen filter.

B

 

[wildroseofky]

Since I moved the mollies out my water condition has greatly improved. For the last 4 days I have had an ammonia reading of 0. My two Juvenal fish look perfectly fine in the QT tank. My adult has had a recurrence of the white, fuzzy spots. She was doing great but my QT tank has went through a mini cycle. I used filter media from my main tank but evidently not enough. I have been doing twice daily water changes in the QT tank. I am thinking of moving the smaller fish back to the main tank one at a time. I started treatment of the QT tank with Jungle Fungus Cure.

Sorry for the info over load. I tend to go into great detail and ramble on when I write.