fish4thewin
Aquarium Advice Newbie
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2014
- Messages
- 2
Hi. I'm new to the hobby and I've having an issue getting Ammonia levels down to 0 in my fresh water tank. My Ammonia levels consistently read 0.25ppm despite by attempts to bring it down. I'm hoping someone can be some pointers or other things to try.
Tank Setup
I have a 30 gallon fresh water tank with 4 mollies, a Pleko and gravel substrate. There's also a live large amazon sword plant and two small mothball plants. The tank has been operational for about 3 months. I went through the cycling process and waited about month before adding fish. (I was trying to make sure I could keep the plants alive before adding fish.)
Filter
I have a small Whisper 30 filter that uses charcoal in a media bag. On a previous attempt at a tank, I was changing the filter media every time I did a water change. I haven't changed the filter since I started this tank and wasn't planning on doing it until the bag started to fall apart. Is there a problem with this approach that might be keeping my ammonia level up?
Ph
When I first started this tank, I had a high Ph. Using straight tap water gave me an 8.8. My plants actually weren't doing so hot when the tank started, but I quickly attacked the Ph problem and my plants turned around in a couple days. It was kind of cool to see them rebound so quickly and watch brown leaves turn to green. I now have a consistent Ph of 7.6. I brought the Ph down by adding a couple large pieces of driftwood and by using more neutral water that comes from the filtered water dispenser on my refrigerator.
Plants
Now that the Ph is under control, the Sword has sprouted another bud and has started forming a second Sword about 8" away from the parent. I use Flourish twice a week with the recommended dosage.
Fluval Biomax
I stumbled on Biomax and thought that might be a way to inject some more good bacteria into the process. I never found good instructions on how to add the Biomax to the tank, so I just stuck a bunch of them in one of the media bags that came with the Whisper 30 filter and crammed it next to the filter that was already in-place inside the Whisper 30. After about two weeks with this setup, I haven't seen any change in the Ammonia levels. I just checked the media bag that was holding the Biomax tonight and it mostly covered in green "stuff". I've decided to take the Biomax out of the bag and just put them directly into the Whisper filter. I'm hoping this will make it easier to get the Bacteria into the Biomax instead of having it get stuck on the media bag.
Fish
The fish seem to be doing well. I just found some baby fish in the tank tonight so it must be comfortable enough for them to reproduce.
Feeding
I fed every other day initially with the tank, but I'm now feeding every third day or so.
Water Change
I've been trying to keep the water change around 10%, but my vacuum sucks up so much water that it can pretty quickly get to 25%. I do it about once a week. When replacing water, I take it out of filtered water dispenser on my refrigerator and put into a 5 gallon bucket. Then I put a little Prime in it and let it sit for at least an hour. I've gone stretches of 2 weeks to see if I was adding too much water, but it doesn't seem to affect the Ammonia level - still 0.25ppm
Final Thoughts
At this point, I'm starting to think it's a filtration issue. It doesn't seem like 4 little Mollies and a pleko would be able to create too much waste for the filter I have, but what else could it be?
Tank Setup
I have a 30 gallon fresh water tank with 4 mollies, a Pleko and gravel substrate. There's also a live large amazon sword plant and two small mothball plants. The tank has been operational for about 3 months. I went through the cycling process and waited about month before adding fish. (I was trying to make sure I could keep the plants alive before adding fish.)
Filter
I have a small Whisper 30 filter that uses charcoal in a media bag. On a previous attempt at a tank, I was changing the filter media every time I did a water change. I haven't changed the filter since I started this tank and wasn't planning on doing it until the bag started to fall apart. Is there a problem with this approach that might be keeping my ammonia level up?
Ph
When I first started this tank, I had a high Ph. Using straight tap water gave me an 8.8. My plants actually weren't doing so hot when the tank started, but I quickly attacked the Ph problem and my plants turned around in a couple days. It was kind of cool to see them rebound so quickly and watch brown leaves turn to green. I now have a consistent Ph of 7.6. I brought the Ph down by adding a couple large pieces of driftwood and by using more neutral water that comes from the filtered water dispenser on my refrigerator.
Plants
Now that the Ph is under control, the Sword has sprouted another bud and has started forming a second Sword about 8" away from the parent. I use Flourish twice a week with the recommended dosage.
Fluval Biomax
I stumbled on Biomax and thought that might be a way to inject some more good bacteria into the process. I never found good instructions on how to add the Biomax to the tank, so I just stuck a bunch of them in one of the media bags that came with the Whisper 30 filter and crammed it next to the filter that was already in-place inside the Whisper 30. After about two weeks with this setup, I haven't seen any change in the Ammonia levels. I just checked the media bag that was holding the Biomax tonight and it mostly covered in green "stuff". I've decided to take the Biomax out of the bag and just put them directly into the Whisper filter. I'm hoping this will make it easier to get the Bacteria into the Biomax instead of having it get stuck on the media bag.
Fish
The fish seem to be doing well. I just found some baby fish in the tank tonight so it must be comfortable enough for them to reproduce.
Feeding
I fed every other day initially with the tank, but I'm now feeding every third day or so.
Water Change
I've been trying to keep the water change around 10%, but my vacuum sucks up so much water that it can pretty quickly get to 25%. I do it about once a week. When replacing water, I take it out of filtered water dispenser on my refrigerator and put into a 5 gallon bucket. Then I put a little Prime in it and let it sit for at least an hour. I've gone stretches of 2 weeks to see if I was adding too much water, but it doesn't seem to affect the Ammonia level - still 0.25ppm
Final Thoughts
At this point, I'm starting to think it's a filtration issue. It doesn't seem like 4 little Mollies and a pleko would be able to create too much waste for the filter I have, but what else could it be?