Ceiora Posted November 1, 2020 Share Posted November 1, 2020 Hey guys, I hadn’t been monitoring my tanks properly for awhile, except for sporadically. When setting up for a new tank, I was motivated to start monitoring all tanks and discovered an ammonia spike in my oldest tank. Occupants showed no signs of distress. Tank is 2.5 gallons and contains a Betta and mystery snail. Betta was added in May and snail was added Oct 6. I used to check tank daily and parameters never really changed as long as I did weekly 50% water changes, parameters didn’t change after adding snail. Oct 28: ammonia 2.0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0. Did 75% water change and brought ammonia down to 1.0 Oct 29: ammonia 1.0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0. Did 75% water change and brought ammonia down to 0.5 Oct 30: ammonia 2.0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0. Did 75% water change and brought ammonia down to 1.0 Oct 31: ammonia 1.0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0. I’m going to assume something bad happened to my good bacteria. Any recommendations on how I should handle this? I have no tank to move the guys to as new tank is still cycling and other tank has stupid aggressive betta already in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streetwise Posted November 1, 2020 Share Posted November 1, 2020 (edited) Those are very large water changes for a very small tank. You may benefit from slowing everything down. Edited November 1, 2020 by Streetwise Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceiora Posted November 1, 2020 Author Share Posted November 1, 2020 Just now, Streetwise said: Those are very large water changes. It’s between 50-75% because the water level drains so quickly with the ridiculously small tank. It’s a struggle to do less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streetwise Posted November 1, 2020 Share Posted November 1, 2020 (edited) Unless something is wrong, I try to just top-off water in my pico and nano tanks. Edited November 1, 2020 by Streetwise Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NicoleHnVa Posted November 1, 2020 Share Posted November 1, 2020 Use Prime so the ammonia isn’t toxic while it re balances itself. I use double the dose every 48hrs and it seems to work great. I crashed my cycle in three tanks guessing by over feeding new guppy fry and I’ve been doing this with water changes waiting for the cycle to catch up and no losses with quite a few babies. I was also adding Stability although I know the verdicts out on how effective it is. I had it on hand and figured it can’t hurt so might as well use it up. On another note I tried to give my daughter a purple mystery snail for her five gallon with her betta and it was a disaster. They’re so big and dirty it made it pretty rough maintaining her tank. The ramshorns were much more complimentary in that size tank and didn’t mess with the parameters like the mystery did as it got big. hope this helps! Nicole 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Burke Posted November 1, 2020 Share Posted November 1, 2020 I’ve never have good luck with nano tanks; there’s just not enough water to cushion the little hiccups. that said, you doubled (give or take) you bioload when you added the mystery snail. Before that you had good STT(seasoned tank time), although that is not really fully defined. But with such a small water volume, an ammonia spike isn’t really too surprising. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceiora Posted November 1, 2020 Author Share Posted November 1, 2020 Thanks guys! Should I perhaps try moving the snail out into my cycling tank to ensure my betta survives for sure, and maybe he will? My planted tank is being posted about here: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Cory Posted November 1, 2020 Administrators Share Posted November 1, 2020 I'd start at the beginning where is the ammonia coming from? You're changing the water and it's coming back. If you're feeding them, I'd stop for at least a week. If you aren't feeding them I'd look towards something in the tank leeching ammonia out. Also know that if you have chloramine in your water, and you do a water change, dechlorinator breaks the bond and turns it into ammonia. So these big water changes might not be helping the problem really. Time usually will solve this problem while getting the ammonia low enough to not be too toxic to the fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverspec04 Posted November 2, 2020 Share Posted November 2, 2020 6 hours ago, Cory said: I'd start at the beginning where is the ammonia coming from? You're changing the water and it's coming back. If you're feeding them, I'd stop for at least a week. If you aren't feeding them I'd look towards something in the tank leeching ammonia out. Also know that if you have chloramine in your water, and you do a water change, dechlorinator breaks the bond and turns it into ammonia. So these big water changes might not be helping the problem really. Time usually will solve this problem while getting the ammonia low enough to not be too toxic to the fish. What types of things can randomly start leeching ammonia? I'm having a similar problem where water changes are not helping my ammonia problem. I'm currently at about 4ppm and trying 20-40% water changes.. I have the same pieces in my tank that I've always had. Some quality made tank deco, plants, cholla wood.. my problem started about a week after I had done a maracyn treatment for a bacterial infected fish that ultimately died anyways. Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Cory Posted November 2, 2020 Administrators Share Posted November 2, 2020 Anything organic can give off ammonia. Also sometimes you get false positives from prime and test kits. I'd watch my video on ammonia spikes if you havent. But basically get it down to 0.5ppm then dont feed. Something like your cholla wood is rotting under water, it alwlays does this and normally plants would eat it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dandy Pearl Posted November 2, 2020 Share Posted November 2, 2020 Like @Ken Burke mentioned. These small tanks don't buffer any problems well. The small tanks to look 'cute' but are very difficult to keep stable. If that's all the room you have, then they can be rewarding. Just understand you have to be on top of taking care of them. Good Luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cornelius85 Posted November 2, 2020 Share Posted November 2, 2020 (edited) I have a similar problem. I am a newbie and started a new tank. Cycle completed rougly in a month. Even though every one said I should introduce fish slowly. I went a head and intrduced all in one go. 15 Harlequin rasbora, 20 cardinal tetras and 8 panda corydoras in a 55 gal tank.. I am testing water everyday and get a result around 0.5 mg/l of amonia every day. changing around 50% water hoping that the bacteria catches up. I am using seachem prime for water conditioning and this amonia test kit. sera ammonium/ammonia-Test (NH4/NH3) | sera WWW.SERA.DE sera NH4/NH3-Test - Water test for aquariums ✔ checks aquarium water for ammonium and ammonia ✔ optimize water parameters ✔ Find out more now! Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance PS: I think seachem stability doesn't work. Edited November 2, 2020 by cornelius85 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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