what happened?

**patinthehat** · 03-31-2012, 08:45 PM

Kind of confused here on what happened. back on the 20th i set up a 10g in my daughters room. i pulled the biomax from one of the filters on my 50g and got it running. I did add a little ammonia because i wasn't getting her betta until the 22nd. So i got her betta put him in and everything has been peachy. the 25th when i was doing all my water changes his ammonia and trites were 0 and trades were 30ish so i did a water change for him. checked his water readings middle of this week and everything was ok. checked them again today and ammonia was at 2, trites and trates were at 0. wth. i have 2 theories. 1. the betta's bioload isn't sufficient enough to keep up with the bacteria i had and they all died so i now have an uncycled tank. 2. there was a crap ton of food in the gravel when i did his gravel cleaning today (wife has def been overfeeding him). so maybe the tank is cycled, his bioload is so small there aren't any noticeable trates right now, and the ammonia is from the fish food decomposing. There are no real plants in the tank just fake. any ideas on this?

**~Col~** · 04-01-2012, 05:24 AM

I would say it was the fish food decomposing. Siphon the food out and do a 50% water change. Check the water params tomorrow.

Food lying around can cause ammonia to spike quite quickly.

**sheamurai** · 04-01-2012, 12:36 PM

I'd go with the second theory too. If the bioload can't support the current population of BB, it would die off, yes, but there is still some ammonia in there so not all BB would die off, it would just die down to the new lower level of available nutrients.

If you think the problem may continue - its hard to convince people that fish REALLY don't need that much food, lol - you might try a bigger filter, or changing up the media in your current filter to more bio-media.

**patinthehat** · 04-01-2012, 04:26 PM

ok ill test again in a bit and see what i get. with their being ammonia present, i wouldn't have thought the bb would die.

**patinthehat** · 04-01-2012, 04:41 PM

ammonia is about .5 and trates are still 0. must be a little food still stuck that i couldnt get to. im going to do a small water change later today.

**Trillianne** · 04-01-2012, 04:46 PM

I agree with Col and Sheamurai that its from the edibles left to decompose. (theory two)

**homemadepopcorn** · 04-01-2012, 06:28 PM

+1... as long as something is producing fish waste, the BB will stay alive... might shrink, but its there nonetheless.

I've also seen mini-spikes when there is uneaten food..a a water change, gravel vacuum and a short fast seem to take care of it.

**sheamurai** · 04-02-2012, 02:14 AM

If ammonia is at 0.5, don't bother with a wee water change. Do a large one. I would do at least half.

**~Col~** · 04-02-2012, 02:42 AM

Originally Posted by sheamurai

If ammonia is at 0.5, don't bother with a wee water change. Do a large one. I would do at least half.

+ 1 to that. I'd do a 50-75% water change and test again tomorrow. Continue to do water changes until the ammonia is 0. Remember the ammonia is in the water, the beneficial bacteria is in the filter (mostly).