biological filtration....

kooter

kooter

AquaMan
Dec 14, 2003
701
13
18
Mission, BC
Can anyone tell me what would be happening..........
My tank has been setup approx. 3 1/2yrs. now. My water quality has
always been excellent. I do water changes (not as often as I should), but I do do them. My tank was at 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and 5 nitrates for years..... why am I all of a sudden showing traces of ammonia (between .5 and 1) and nitrite = 0, nitrates = ~ 5. It's been like this for over 1 month now.
How can you see traces of ammonia with no nitrites?
My tap water seems to be around .25 ammonia

pH = 6.0
 
Do you get these readings right after a water change?
 
Have you made any changes to the filtration, stock level, etc?
 
Are you missing any fish mysteriously?
 
if it's the tank you listed in your signature (planted 120), have any plants been dying? rotting plants put a triple whammy on water parameters:

plants stop taking up ammonia
plants produce ammonia through decay
plants replace bacterial filtration to an extent, so when a plant is lost, the bacteria is not there immediately to cover the slack.
 
wataugachicken said:
if it's the tank you listed in your signature (planted 120), have any plants been dying? rotting plants put a triple whammy on water parameters:

plants stop taking up ammonia
plants produce ammonia through decay
plants replace bacterial filtration to an extent, so when a plant is lost, the bacteria is not there immediately to cover the slack.
Click to expand...

:iagree:
 
wataugachicken said:
if it's the tank you listed in your signature (planted 120), have any plants been dying? rotting plants put a triple whammy on water parameters:

plants stop taking up ammonia
plants produce ammonia through decay
plants replace bacterial filtration to an extent, so when a plant is lost, the bacteria is not there immediately to cover the slack.
Click to expand...


Actually, I did a major "pruning", must of been hundreds of dollars of plants I took out......seemed like it anyways. It was a garbage bag full.
I only left a few that I wanted and that is when I noticed the "spike".
I guess that is what happened. I didn't even think that that would make a difference on ammonia levels. oops. Anyways, I went out today and got some more plants (different species).
To answer the WC question,.........sometimes I go 2 months without a WC and sometimes it's every 2 weeks. I don't have a cover on the tank and it evaporates at a rate of 3L per day so I replenish 6L of fresh water every 2nd day. I try to vacuum /WC at least every couple weeks but sometimes it just doesn't happen, especially with a 2yr old around that LOVES to help out! LOL

Thanks for all your responses!
 
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