As you recall from an earlier thread I removed my plants for some quick temporary maintanance and my ammonia shot up. I've gotten the ammonia down to slightly under 0.5 ppm (my tapwater has 0.5 ppm NH3) and it is slowly dropping but way too slow for my satisfaction. I added the plants back + added 2 new plants (red ludwigia). The ludwigia was bleach dipped for 1 minute and 30 seconds but did not seem to notice and is starting to take off. Nitrites are 0 and Nitrates are around 10 ppm. I've increased CO2 to lower the pH from 7.0 to around 6.7 to detoxify the ammonia. The fish don't look stressed but I want this at 0 as quickly as possible. I've given the tank at shot of nitrifying bacteria from another tank + a bag of bio-spira. Any other suggestions or must I just be patient. This tank is over 6 months old and the last time I saw ammonia in it was during the fishless cycle.
One thing I've learned though is that removing all the plants from a densely planted tank with a fully stocked fishload is not a good idea. Even for short term substrate maintanance.
One thing I've learned though is that removing all the plants from a densely planted tank with a fully stocked fishload is not a good idea. Even for short term substrate maintanance.
