The Puffer Forum

traces of ammonia and nitrates beginning to show. dont know why, weekly water changes of 40% routine. help!

Are your test kits old? Sometimes they will malefunction, also, make sure you use liquid test reagents, not dip strips, they are wildely inaccurate because they have such a short shelf life. How do you clean the filter media? I recommend rinseing in old tank water only, and only as often as it clogs so much the filter flow pours over the media or is reduced(in the case of forced throughput filters).

Your tank is not cycled.

If you have biospira available add that. As an alternative add filter material from a long running filter (each day if possible).

Keep on doing water changes to keep both parameters down. Increase frequency and percentage if necessary.

Ensure proper aeration.

Corvus, he says its an established tank.

Marty, how long has the tank been set up? Have there been any changes/additions recently? And I'd also recommend looking to the test kits if they're not relatively new.

And if it isn't faulty test strips, and the tank is properly cycled, look into the possibility there is something rotting in the tank. If something got stuck in some of the decor and you haven't found it for a couple of weeks that could do it. I've had food get trapped up inside a fake hollow decoration before and it became a little nitrate bomb.

If that's not the problem, have you inspected/thoroughly cleaned your filter lately? Possibly there could be something trapped in there as well.

If all these things fail to explain the problem, look into local water source changes.

OraLacerta wrote:And if it isn't faulty test strips, and the tank is properly cycled, look into the possibility there is something rotting in the tank. If something got stuck in some of the decor and you haven't found it for a couple of weeks that could do it. I've had food get trapped up inside a fake hollow decoration before and it became a little nitrate bomb.

I've had this AND BOY DOES IT STINK

i initially used bio spira, tank is about 4 weeks old now. and the test kit comes with viles and seperate drops, itry to wash the filter "bag" in tap water thats at the same temp. also tank has been the same, no new added plants or fish. added maybe a pound of sand, same substrate. test kit is also new. Will buying distilled water from the pet store be a better option for me?

if you are washing your filter bag in tap water that may be the problem. It may be killing off too much of the benificial bacteria thus causing you to have a mini cycle. It happened in our tank too because we took all the decorations out and scrubbed them and changed the filter bag.

Wouldn't wash out the filter except if the flow decreases significantly.

IMO you cannot call a tank properly cycled that has ammonia, because the nitrogen cycle obviously does not work for whatever reason (e.g. too much cleaning, too much bio-load for the system, bacteria toxins like some medications).

I hope it's not much ammonia. Watch the nitrite.

EDIT: distilled water from the lfs can be used for high end brackish to marine, but for freshwater tanks tap water (may have to be treated) is better, since distilled water lacks practically all mineral compounds.

What size tank and what are the occupants? Is it planted? What exactly are the readings you are getting? Aside from water changes and rinsing the filter media, do you do anything else to clean it? Are you vacuuming the gravel? Are all of the occupants alive and accounted for? Are you possibly overfeeding and there's some food rotting somewhere?

No, don't use distilled water. And rinsing the filter media in tap water is fine, many people have been doing it for years with no ill effects.

one green spotted puffer in a 20 g long tank with sand substrate some val planting and and coral rock. ammonia 1 ppm nitrate 5 ppm pH7.6 and u scoop out any severed plant leaf or uneaten food on sight

Actually, I just wanna elaborate on what spoot says. Our Ammonia's never spiked after the cycle finished, but our nitrIte did go up when we scrubbed everything and changed out our filter bag.

Have you used any other products than Biospira?

Some of them will "remove" ammonia, but then when they wear out or get used up, suddenly there's ammonia readings.

just the dechlorinating drops for water changes. i am happy to post that the ammonia levels are dropping since i last replied

IMO, if you stirred up the substrate at all and then did a 40% change, you could have removed a lot of the nitrifying bacteria that was possibly free floating after the substrate was stirred..

I'm surprised nobody has asked what your salinity is? What are you using to measure the salinity? It's possible when you are doing the water changes that you have added too much salt and killed off some of the nitrifying bacteria.