Morbid question

[irishspy]

In a light loaded, small tank such as the 10 gallon....it could have easily caused the spike. Are you missing anything else?

Nope. At the moment, there are only the three remaining shrimp (plus some snails) in the tank, and everyone seems happy.

I doubt it is your tap water, but I presume you are using a declorinator that handles chlorine and chloramine, and it had been greater than 24-36 hrs since your last water change when you discovered things.

Yep, I use Prime both in the new bucket and in the tank itself when water is added. I set the bucket up the night before, so it sits overnight before a change. Water changes are usually on Saturdays, so it had been a few days.

I have never seen a spike from a single dead shrimp. How long has this tank been established?

Since February/March. The readings are generally very stable, and the bio-load is quite light.

I'm doing another 30% water change today, just to freshen the water as much as possible. Thanks for the advice, folks!

 

[Coler]

I could see a dead shrimp causing a nitrate spike in a well established aquarium, but not an ammonia spike.

How would that happen H ? Just curious.

 

[H3D]

How would that happen H ? Just curious.

The dead shrimp will start to decompose. Ammonia/ammonium is one of the byproducts of this process. In a well established aquarium, the ammonia/ammonium will be rapidly converted to nitrite, which will be rapidly converted to nitrate.

This process is similar to cycling a tank with a piece of shrimp, but rapid since all the bacteria is already established.

Typically when something dies in a tank there will be a nitrate spike. The size of the spike depends on the size of the take and how well it is planted.

 

[Coler]

Sorry I put question badly - you're saying that the shrimp is too small to overload the biofilter i.e. will be processed so quickly that ammonia/nitrite will not register en route to nitrates ?

 

[H3D]

Sorry I put question badly - you're saying that the shrimp is too small to overload the biofilter i.e. will be processed so quickly that ammonia/nitrite will not register en route to nitrates ?

Yes. That's what I am saying. :grinyes:

 

[Coler]

Gotcha tnks.

 

[H3D]

NP. :grinyes:

 

[H3D]

I just realized you are dosing with prime. Prime causes a false positive with most ammonia tests. It is likely you do not even have an ammonia spike.

 

[irishspy]

I just realized you are dosing with prime. Prime causes a false positive with most ammonia tests. It is likely you do not even have an ammonia spike.

Oh, good point. I recall that being mention on the Seachem faq. I also have Seachem's "multi-test" for ammonia. Maybe I'll give that a try and see what the results are. :idea:

BTW, ammonia tests via the API kit are now reading zero. :thm: