How to combat ammonia in moina culture?

[Mississippi fish guy]

My 10 gallon moina culture has had high ammonia (8ppm at least) for at least a month now.  Once after a roughly 90 percent water change the ammonia was still at 2 ppm. Currently I have a hob filter that I turn off sometimes so that the yeast and spirulina is not filtered out. Currently I am running seachem purigen and Fluval ammonia pads in the filter and I just removed the pad the filter came with that had carbon in it. Along with large water changes what can I do to get rid of the ammonia?

[skeeter_2]

I wouldn't worry about ammonia in a moina culture. My moina culture stays pretty nasty, since it's usually old water from the bottom of my fry tubs. I've added green water starter culture and sometimes moss to it to absorb some of the nutrients.  How do you avoid filtering out the moina? I just use air stones on mine. 

[Mississippi fish guy]

On 8/30/2024 at 8:29 PM, skeeter_2 said:

How do you avoid filtering out the moina?

I use a sponge filter as a prefilter. One reason I want the ammonia down is because I have snails In that tank and I don’t think they like the ammonia since most of them are always at the surface and they don’t move much. Also I figured the moons would be doing even better with the ammonia gone.

[skeeter_2]

Ah. I'd just add live plants. My snails usually hit the surface because of low oxygen, but that's less of an issue since you have an actual filter.

[Mississippi fish guy]

On 8/30/2024 at 10:17 PM, skeeter_2 said:

add live plants

What kind? It would need to do fine floating because I’m not sure if my substrate is deep enough for planting 

[MrGibson]

I’ve found that Salvinia minima and azolla filliculoides grow fast and just absolutely rip nitrogenous waste out of the water. There’s always duckweed too but tread carefully there lol. Very easy to accidentally transfer between tanks. Ask me how I know. I’d also be mindful of how much open surface area you have. Too much surface are covered by floating plants can lead to low oxygen levels due to limited gas exchange.