What the heck.......

[Lady Hobbs]

I always do the clarity check on my tanks end to end. They'd better be as clear from end to end just as from front to back. I noticed tonight my parrot tank was a little murky looking from end to end so I did my water tests and ended up with .25 ammonia, .50 nitrites and 40 nitrates.

What the heck? I haven't done one thing to this tank other than my water changes. Haven't even cleaned the filters which are not yet due.

My Prime has not come in yet (on order) for this month so now I get to run across town to the store, pick up some AquaSafe and tear this tank apart at 9 PM to see what in heck is going on. I have a feeling I have a Bristlenose that may have died. No other explanation of what could have happened here.

And wouldn't ya just know I was at this same store today. grrrrrr

[Goes to 11!]

Wow,

Find the body and keep us posted LH.

[smaug]

Youll get a handle on it. I do hate those inconveniantly timed emergancy tank maint mad moments. Had one this morning:ssuprised:

[genocidex]

wow that stink LH, hope you find the source of all this head ache.... i always keep a small bottle of water conditioner aside just in case XD.

[Mith]

LH.... why tear down the tank? Why not just do extra water changes until it (the parameters) stabilize? If a fish died, eventually the water's going to stabilize with the water changes right?

[Lady Hobbs]

If a dead catfish is in the tank, he would continue to rot and continue to cause ammonia levels. I didn't want to leave a dead body in the tank.

But anyway, I took everything out of the tank, (slate/driftwood/rocks) found all the catfish alive. I did an 80% water change and everythings up and running again. Had to wake the fish up for all this nonsense so they have gone beddie-bye again.

We're supposed to have a possible ice storm tonight so didn't dare wait until morning. Have no idea what happened.

[openbook]

It's raining like crazy here, don't know what to expect tomorrow. I hate shoveling slush!
I had a recent problem in a small tank. I didn't realize the filter pipe had gotten plugged up with plant bits.

[Lady Hobbs]

We didn't get the ice but I woke up to a few inches of snow. Better than ice!

Last night is a good lesson to learn on always having a test kit. I had no idea something was wrong with the tank and if the water hadn't been a tad cloudy, I never would have tested.

I always double dose the Prime because one capful never feels like enough to me. I dose for 100 gallons altho the tank is only a 55. There is certainly plenty of gunk in the canister and the AC110 that I should not have had ammonia/nitrites levels at all. So, I am at a loss here as to what happened.
My tap water as always was 0/0.

[genocidex]

idk what to think either LH.... tho im glad you are sending me some snow finally XD..... oh how i missed it. was that storm good to you?

is it possible just a build up of crud in the sand/gravel?

thats all i can think of.

[Lady Hobbs]

Good thought but it's pretty much a bare bottom tank. I have a small amount of substrate in one corner for the vals but the rest of the tank is naked.

At 8 AM we are now into a full blown blizzard! So glad I dragged myself to the store last night!!!!!!