Scaperoot Posted July 9 Share Posted July 9 Last night, I found a dead cherry barb in my 40 breeder community tank. It was stuck between an air pump cord and the glass. I assumed that's what had killed it. Then this morning, I found one of my 3 albino corys floating. I've had these guys for over two years. When I test the water, I get Nitrite and Ammonia reading, even though I had done a small (5-7 gallons) water change on Saturday. Nitrates were less than 20ppm Saturday, but I do routine water changes regardless. I did not feed the fish on Sunday. Now I'm wondering if I had ammonia and nitrites all along, but missed it by only testing Nitrates prior to today. This is a pretty heavily planted tank with cherry barbs, white clouds, 5 black mollies, a few platys, a few endlers, a tiger barb, 3 pea puffers, and about a dozen Corys. I add ramshorns to the tank every few days, unless I'm feeding bloodworms for the puffers. I don't always collect the snails afterwards. Could that be what's causing ammonia and nitrites? I add about 5-7 large ramshorns every 3-4 days. Shouldn't a heavily planted 40 breeder be able to handle that?? The only other thing I can think of is that I may have failed to completely wash off some hand lotion or something. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tlindsey Posted July 9 Share Posted July 9 (edited) On 7/9/2024 at 8:15 AM, Scaperoot said: Last night, I found a dead cherry barb in my 40 breeder community tank. It was stuck between an air pump cord and the glass. I assumed that's what had killed it. Then this morning, I found one of my 3 albino corys floating. I've had these guys for over two years. When I test the water, I get Nitrite and Ammonia reading, even though I had done a small (5-7 gallons) water change on Saturday. Nitrates were less than 20ppm Saturday, but I do routine water changes regardless. I did not feed the fish on Sunday. Now I'm wondering if I had ammonia and nitrites all along, but missed it by only testing Nitrates prior to today. This is a pretty heavily planted tank with cherry barbs, white clouds, 5 black mollies, a few platys, a few endlers, a tiger barb, 3 pea puffers, and about a dozen Corys. I add ramshorns to the tank every few days, unless I'm feeding bloodworms for the puffers. I don't always collect the snails afterwards. Could that be what's causing ammonia and nitrites? I add about 5-7 large ramshorns every 3-4 days. Shouldn't a heavily planted 40 breeder be able to handle that?? The only other thing I can think of is that I may have failed to completely wash off some hand lotion or something. How many times do you feed your fish? With all those plants uneaten food could be missed start to rot and increase bio load. Not enough beneficial bacteria to handle it. Yes possible for something on your hand to poison the water but not sure if this is the case. @Scaperoot Edited July 9 by Tlindsey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tlindsey Posted July 9 Share Posted July 9 On 7/9/2024 at 8:15 AM, Scaperoot said: don't always collect the snails afterwards. Could that be what's causing ammonia and nitrites? Yes if the snail is not completely eaten. I would feed them the smallest snails not large ones. I would do a water change asap and don't forget the dechlorinator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scaperoot Posted July 9 Author Share Posted July 9 On 7/9/2024 at 8:39 AM, Tlindsey said: How many times do you feed your fish? With all those plants uneaten food could be missed start to rot and increase bio load. Not enough beneficial bacteria to handle it. Yes possible for something on your hand to poison the water but not sure if this is the case. @Scaperoot The fish are fed 5 times per week. They fast on Wednesdays and Sundays. I feed them an amount they can eat in less than two minutes, and I leave an open area in the front of the tank so I can see any food that sinks on the sand. They devour it all. I'm thinking it's the snails, because the pea puffers can't reach and consume the entire body. I should probably stop adding snails. They get bloodworms twice a week anyway. The puffers don't touch the flakes. Sucks to know I'm responsible for this, but I'll adjust and hopefully avoid more losses like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tlindsey Posted July 9 Share Posted July 9 (edited) On 7/9/2024 at 9:55 AM, Scaperoot said: thinking it's the snails, because the pea puffers can't reach and consume the entire body. After reading your feeding routine of the other fish I agree. Tiny snails are the best option for Pea puffer from what I have read. @Scaperoot Edited July 9 by Tlindsey Miss spelling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scaperoot Posted July 9 Author Share Posted July 9 I did a 20% water change and I'm still getting the same ammonia and nitrite readings. I'll have to do another 20-30%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rube_Goldfish Posted July 9 Share Posted July 9 On 7/9/2024 at 3:50 PM, Scaperoot said: I did a 20% water change and I'm still getting the same ammonia and nitrite readings. I'll have to do another 20-30%. Is there a chance you've got ammonia in your tap water? Also, what dechlorinator are you using? Seachem has this on the FAQ page for Prime: "I tested my tap water after using Prime® and came up with an ammonia reading. Is this because of chloramine? Could you explain how this works in removing chloramine? A: Prime® works by removing chlorine from the water and then binds with ammonia until it can be consumed by your biological filtration (chloramine minus chlorine = ammonia). The bond is not reversible and ammonia is still available for your bacteria to consume. Prime® will not halt your cycling process. I am going to assume that you were using a liquid based reagent test kit (Nessler based, silica). Any type of reducing agent or ammonia binder (dechlorinators, etc) will give you a false positive. You can avoid this by using our MultiTest™ Ammonia kit (not affected by reducing agents) or you can wait to test, Prime® dissipates from your system within 24 hours." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scaperoot Posted July 9 Author Share Posted July 9 On 7/9/2024 at 3:56 PM, Rube_Goldfish said: Is there a chance you've got ammonia in your tap water? Also, what dechlorinator are you using? Seachem has this on the FAQ page for Prime: "I tested my tap water after using Prime® and came up with an ammonia reading. Is this because of chloramine? Could you explain how this works in removing chloramine? A: Prime® works by removing chlorine from the water and then binds with ammonia until it can be consumed by your biological filtration (chloramine minus chlorine = ammonia). The bond is not reversible and ammonia is still available for your bacteria to consume. Prime® will not halt your cycling process. I am going to assume that you were using a liquid based reagent test kit (Nessler based, silica). Any type of reducing agent or ammonia binder (dechlorinators, etc) will give you a false positive. You can avoid this by using our MultiTest™ Ammonia kit (not affected by reducing agents) or you can wait to test, Prime® dissipates from your system within 24 hours." I'll need to test it. I never get ammonia readings in my other tanks, but I usually don't test right after a water change. I never thought to check tbh. I use Prime, and the API liquid test kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scaperoot Posted July 9 Author Share Posted July 9 This is my tap water reading. I lost three more fish. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quikv6 Posted July 10 Share Posted July 10 If you are losing fish, I think you should proceed as if the ammonia reading is accurate and present. (which I believe it is). A 20% water change will not put a dent in it. Provided your source water perameters are the same as your tank, a large water change is in order. I would do 75-80 percent. Ammonia is deadly, and fresh, clean water without ammonia isn't. Remember to dechlorinate, and be aware that you are treating the symptom and still need to figure out the source of the problem. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted July 10 Share Posted July 10 On 7/9/2024 at 7:48 PM, Scaperoot said: This is my tap water reading. I lost three more fish. Quick question. What is the source for your water. Municipal? Or well? I assume you haven’t had this problem before. So the contamination is a new thing? Not an immediate danger to you, but long term it’s not good. Causes organ damage. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scaperoot Posted July 10 Author Share Posted July 10 (edited) It's municipal water. On Sunday, I spot-treated a few plants with Hydrogen Peroxide to remove black beard algae. Could that be a factor? Edited July 10 by Scaperoot spelling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted July 10 Share Posted July 10 It looks like your tap was 0.5? Then the peroxide may have exacerbated the situation, but your water supply may have a bit of contamination as well. Possibly only temporary. And since usda doesn’t consider this a health issue for people … but it’s a big issue for fish. local limits can be up to 30mg/l hopefully it’s only temporary and straitens out. We used peroxide to treat our iron bacteria in our well. And I had a hard time keeping cycles going. One of the reasons I switched to Ro water. For what it’s worth 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rube_Goldfish Posted July 10 Share Posted July 10 On 7/10/2024 at 7:11 AM, Scaperoot said: It's municipal water. On Sunday, I spot-treated a few plants with Hydrogen Peroxide to remove black beard algae. Could that be a factor? As the algae dies and breaks down, it would give off ammonia, yes. I don't know how much; I guess if there was a lot of blackbeard algae. Either way, big water change and probably a double dose of dechlorinator. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now