Worms

[Ked2016]

The cloudiness went away finally. Thank you guys!
Now my tank has Detritus worms along witha smell. I have continued the water changes, I took out anything that was not natural to soak. The smell is almost gone. Though the worms are out full force. The nitrate and nitrite are off. I don't understand why with all the water changes. Unless my poor shrimp are stressed. Dose anyone have any advice?

[Aiken Drum]

Is this a freshwater or saltwater tank? Your other thread is about a FW tank, but this is in SW.

Detritus worms proliferate through over feeding. If there isnt enough food lying about detritus worm will die off.

You are seeing nitrite because your tank still isnt cycled. Your tank is producing waste quicker than your water changes is removing it. Again overfeeding wont help.

Do you know how to cycle a tank?

What precisely are your water parameters?

Can you give some more details on the tank? How big is it? What do you have in there?

[Colin_T]

If you have detritus worms in the water and on the glass, it means there is something in the aquarium or water they don't like. It can be rotting food, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, fertiliser, medication or anything. They come out of the substrate and try to swim away but can't go anywhere in the tank so you see them on the glass and in the water.

The easiest way to deal with the is with big (75%) daily water changes and gravel cleaning the substrate. This will also help dilute any nitrite/ nitrate in the water.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Nitrate test kits read nitrite as nitrate, and give you a false reading if there is any nitrite in the water. If your aquarium is cycling, don't bother testing for nitrate until the ammonia and nitrite have both gone up and come back down to 0ppm.

[Ked2016]

This is the same tank. I have shrimp, mystery snails and a bottom feeder with live plants. I can move everyone to a different tank. To let the tank cycle. It's only a 5gallon but no issues. If I do that should I move the plants? There is no food on the bottom. I have a feeding dish. It's a 29 gallon tank. It's been up a little over a month. Freash water put this in the wrong feed.

[Aiken Drum]

Do you know how to cycle a tank?

What precisely are your water parameters?

[Ked2016]

I use the dip stick to see if my water is good

[Aiken Drum]

Ok. And what are the results of the test? Simply saying nitrite and nitrate is off doesnt tell us very much. And what about ammonia?

Your tank needs cycling. Do you know how to cycle a tank?

[Ked2016]

They are the only ones that are off. Everything else is normal

[Ked2016]

I took all shrimp, mystery snails out and our in the other aquarium. While I figure out what is going on.

[Aiken Drum]

Why is so difficult for you to tell what the results of your test are? I have no idea what you consider normal. Or if there is a problem how big a problem is it. Nobody can help you if you dont provide information.

Your tank isnt cycled. You need to cycle the tank.

Last time.

Do you know how to cycle a tank?

What precisely are your water parameters? Numbers please. pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

[Ked2016]

No I don't know how to. I thought I did

Nitrate 80
Nitrite 5.0
Hardness 300
Chlorine 0
Alkalinity 120
Ph between 7.2 and 7.8
Ammonia 0

[Ked2016]

Should I empty the water, put all new water in and start again? I used the quick start fluid. I never had to get chlorine out of my water before also.

[Ked2016]

It was not a problem getting the information for you. I just don't understand why it was important. Can you please explain it to me.

[Aiken Drum]

Its important to know what the water parameters are so we get a full picture of whats going on. We get many people who come on here and say their parameters are fine, and when they give actual numbers it turns out they arent. Or they say they have massive spikes, but when they give actual numbers their parameters are nothing to worry about. We had 1 member say their parameters are fine, but when pressed they admitted they had no idea what their parameters are and was just telling us what they thought we wanted to hear because they didnt want to admit they had a water quality problem. Turned out that was precisely the problem.

Its kind of like when you go to the doctor. They ask a bunch of questions, most of which dont see why. But its important information. It helps firm up whats wrong and discount whats not, and may raise issues you arent even aware of.

[Aiken Drum]

What your test shows is your cycle is partially established. You have good ammonia to nitrite microbes, but the microbes that convert nitrite to nitrate isnt fully established. You likely have some of these microbes as you are seeing nitrate, but not enough as you are still seeing nitrite. Its this nitrite to nitrate stage that usually takes a while to establish.

High nitrite and nitrate is usually a sign of high ammonia as these 2 come from ammonia. You havent really said how much bioload you had in the tank. "Some shrimp and snails" could mean 2 or 3. Or it could mean 20 to 30. Your livestock could be producing very little or loads of ammonia. Your tap water could also be a source of ammonia and nitrate. So next thing to do is test your tap water and report the results.

Now you have removed all the livestock, change 90% of the water in your tank and monitor for a few days. If nitrite and nitrate continue to increase there is something in the tank other than shrimp, snails and fish putting ammonia in the water. Report how this goes over the next couple of days.

And keep a similar eye on your 5g tank. You may be swapping a water quality problem in a bigger tank for the same problem in a smaller tank. As previous point, you havent really said how many shrimp, snails and fish you have, your small tank may not be able to cope. Let us know how water parameters are in this smaller tank too.

[Ked2016]

Shrimp 12
Mystery snails
I know it's tight. I am worried about a ghost shrimp that was not in the other tank. She is red.

[Ked2016]

This is the ghost shrimp

[Aiken Drum]

What was the test results for your tap water?

Did you do the big water change?

[Ked2016]

Originally Posted by Aiken Drum

What was the test results for your tap water?

Did you do the big water change?

No tomorrow I am. It's a big project. I had to do water changes on my other 2 tanks. The tank I put everyone my shrimp are not doing well. I need to get testing strips. I had some mystery babies I don't know if they are ok.

[Ked2016]

The shrimp I moved to the other tank are dying quickly by the 2s. Can they be what's going on? Was this to much stress? My poor mama's ��