CJRose14
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hey, all! I posted about a week ago about how my fish were dying. You (very gently, thank you!) told me that I likely had ammonia, despite the rest of my numbers looking fine.
I returned the fish, bought a liquid kit and voila! I had ammonia. Not much, but a bit. So I thought to myself, "Hey, why not speed up the cycling a little? I've already got some bacteria in there from a big hunk of driftwood my sister gave me from her established tank. Since there aren't any fish, I'll go get some ammonia (the right kind) and add it in!" However, during the "adding a little in" process, it accidentally got DUMPED in. My ammonia was probably 20ppm+.
Now. After tons of water changes, I'm down to 4ppm. On Monday, I got some filter media from a friend's tank to help rebuild bacteria (because I'm just going to assume I killed what I had). When I tested last night, my ammonia was down to around 3ppm, nitrites were around .25 and nitrates were about 30. However, this morning I tested and my ammonia is back up above 4ppm!
I have no fish in the tank whatsoever, which the exception of two TIIIIIINY little baby cherry shrimp that hitched a ride with some recent plants I got. It is a planted tank. Last night, I moved a bunch of stuff around and buried some bio balls that wouldn't fit in my filter in the sand. Do you all think some ammonia could have been trapped in the sand and that's what did it?
I'm so confused. Haha. Any help would be appreciated! Also, do you think lowering the pH would help? For some reason, i've got wicked high pH. Somewhere in the 8.4 range. :S I have 3 pieces of natural driftwood in there and i've tried using Seachem Neutral Regulator to help.
I returned the fish, bought a liquid kit and voila! I had ammonia. Not much, but a bit. So I thought to myself, "Hey, why not speed up the cycling a little? I've already got some bacteria in there from a big hunk of driftwood my sister gave me from her established tank. Since there aren't any fish, I'll go get some ammonia (the right kind) and add it in!" However, during the "adding a little in" process, it accidentally got DUMPED in. My ammonia was probably 20ppm+.
Now. After tons of water changes, I'm down to 4ppm. On Monday, I got some filter media from a friend's tank to help rebuild bacteria (because I'm just going to assume I killed what I had). When I tested last night, my ammonia was down to around 3ppm, nitrites were around .25 and nitrates were about 30. However, this morning I tested and my ammonia is back up above 4ppm!
I have no fish in the tank whatsoever, which the exception of two TIIIIIINY little baby cherry shrimp that hitched a ride with some recent plants I got. It is a planted tank. Last night, I moved a bunch of stuff around and buried some bio balls that wouldn't fit in my filter in the sand. Do you all think some ammonia could have been trapped in the sand and that's what did it?
I'm so confused. Haha. Any help would be appreciated! Also, do you think lowering the pH would help? For some reason, i've got wicked high pH. Somewhere in the 8.4 range. :S I have 3 pieces of natural driftwood in there and i've tried using Seachem Neutral Regulator to help.