Barliman
Aquarium Advice Addict
Hi all,
I'm faced with a bit of a puzzle. I keep a 10g tank as a grow out tank for platys I harvest from my 20g, taking them to the pet store when they're big enough. The tank has been up a bit over a month. Here are the basics:
Substrate: none. Bare bottom.
Water changes: 20% daily, 30% per day over the last weekend, 40% tonight.
Fauna: nine juvenile platys, about 1" in size
Flora: floating anacharis and cardamine lyrata
PH: 6.8
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 5-10
Filtration: 1 AC 20, 1 medium sponge filter
Feeding: a variety of flake and frozen, no more than they can eat in two minutes.
The water was tested both with Tetra strips and the API Master Kit, and they agreed with each other. The tank was cycled from the start because I used an already-cycled sponge from another tank in the AC 20.
Water quality hadn't been a problem until about a week ago: I had given the fish their first meal of frozen bloodworms and, the next day, I noticed they were lethargic. Figured it was a "food coma." But, when two were still that way the next day and were hiding in the plants, I checked the water: ammonia was at 1.0.
I'd been doing 20% water changes daily since the tank was set up, and then increased it as described above. I can get the ammonia down to ~.25 with large water changes, then it creeps back up again.
I'm baffled about the source: I vacuum the bottom with each water change, getting as much detritus as I can find. All fish are accounted for. Here are my guesses:
So, I'm keeping up the daily large water changes and trying to get the filters doing their job again.
Any ideas what may have caused this?
Here's a picture of the tank:
I'm faced with a bit of a puzzle. I keep a 10g tank as a grow out tank for platys I harvest from my 20g, taking them to the pet store when they're big enough. The tank has been up a bit over a month. Here are the basics:
Substrate: none. Bare bottom.
Water changes: 20% daily, 30% per day over the last weekend, 40% tonight.
Fauna: nine juvenile platys, about 1" in size
Flora: floating anacharis and cardamine lyrata
PH: 6.8
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 5-10
Filtration: 1 AC 20, 1 medium sponge filter
Feeding: a variety of flake and frozen, no more than they can eat in two minutes.
The water was tested both with Tetra strips and the API Master Kit, and they agreed with each other. The tank was cycled from the start because I used an already-cycled sponge from another tank in the AC 20.
Water quality hadn't been a problem until about a week ago: I had given the fish their first meal of frozen bloodworms and, the next day, I noticed they were lethargic. Figured it was a "food coma." But, when two were still that way the next day and were hiding in the plants, I checked the water: ammonia was at 1.0.
I'd been doing 20% water changes daily since the tank was set up, and then increased it as described above. I can get the ammonia down to ~.25 with large water changes, then it creeps back up again.
I'm baffled about the source: I vacuum the bottom with each water change, getting as much detritus as I can find. All fish are accounted for. Here are my guesses:
- Perhaps the bacteria bed died? How I don't know, and it seems even odder because of two filters. Can cycled filters spontaneously fail?
- Or, was it bad carbon? Two-three weeks ago, I had painters in another room of the apartment. To deal with possible fumes, I removed one sponge from the AC 20 (left it in the tank, though) and replaced it with a pillow of Fluval carbon from Petco. Is it possible that, in just a couple of weeks, the carbon was exhausted and started releasing toxins? I've removed it and replaced the sponge. If true, I should see a difference soon.
- Evil spirits?
So, I'm keeping up the daily large water changes and trying to get the filters doing their job again.
Any ideas what may have caused this?
Here's a picture of the tank: