I have had my qt up for two weeks. Mine is a 20g with a HOB filter and currently has two small fish in it. I have been feeding small amounts, doing about 20% water changes daily, and vaccuming the bottom. The HOB has a well seeded filter floss in it that had been in my sump at least 8 weeks. Still today I am starting to have ammonia issues with the tank. I just did about a 60% water change and put in a dose of aqualock. Any ideas how I can corrent this ammonia issue now, and avoid it in the future?
QT ammonia issues -- please help!!
- Thread starter bamf25
- Start date
briankmarsh1980
I'm a member of **!!!!!!
When I used a 20g as a QT I always had ammonia problems had to do daily water changes but I would feed daily.
The QT I have set up now is a 40B with 8 fish in it I only feed every 3 days its been running for a month now no water changes and no ammonia.....
Not sure why this larger QT is working so well I'm guessing its do to the fact of me feeding less.
The QT I have set up now is a 40B with 8 fish in it I only feed every 3 days its been running for a month now no water changes and no ammonia.....
Not sure why this larger QT is working so well I'm guessing its do to the fact of me feeding less.
Stop feeding until you get this corrected. Be sure fish eat all food when you resume. Use Ammolock or similar at any hint of ammonia, change the filter daily, and perhaps up the strength of your pump. There are 2 ways to do a qt: cycled, which uses biofiltration and relies on rock and sponge and other things; and non-cycled, which I prefer, which just keeps the premises scrupulously clean and changes the filter floss daily to rid the tank of any particulate waste whatsoever. If your fish are/is somewhat large for the qt tank a very strong pump is a good idea, since it also contributes oxygen; and you may have to do daily 10% water changes to keep it in check.
The reason I don't trust cycled qts---a) they're not always ready when you need them and b) if not managed expertly (experts are somewhat rare in the newbie forum) they can turn on you and produce bad stuff fast if you lean on them too hard. If you choose cycled, just be careful and test often: there is an ammonia badge from Kent that will warn you ammonia is present. That would be a good thing.
The reason I don't trust cycled qts---a) they're not always ready when you need them and b) if not managed expertly (experts are somewhat rare in the newbie forum) they can turn on you and produce bad stuff fast if you lean on them too hard. If you choose cycled, just be careful and test often: there is an ammonia badge from Kent that will warn you ammonia is present. That would be a good thing.
I have an ammonia warning disk in the tank. That is what alerted me. The aqua lock and the water change has made that disk change back to safe within about two hours. The fish have both been eating very well, and if I had overfed I would go right back in and suck up the extra food, so it was not hanging around. Gonna change the filter floss out also tonight. In the future, I am going the try and run the normal filter with seeded bioballs that can be either discarded or disinfected after use. May not be the best idea, but worth a try.
Hope this does it. I did two 50% water changes in the last 24 hrs, as well as a 10% clean the botton siphon. I changed the filter floss, and wiped down the bottom of the tank as well as the walls to get buildup off. The last 50% + water change was done with water taken from the DT which tests perfectly.
The fish still look great!! Just upset at the draining/adding water process that has been going on the last few days.
The fish still look great!! Just upset at the draining/adding water process that has been going on the last few days.
