danchristopher
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- Dan
First off, I'd like to mention how great this forum has been in providing so much information! But am in need of some advice.
Sorry this post is long-winded but I think the information is mostly relevant? Haha.
I have my axies setup in a large 3 ft tank. I was unaware of the cycling process before I had my axies and as such have been cycling the tank and monitoring it closely with daily water changes throughout the process.
Amazingly enough, they actually bred while this was happening.
Recently however my tank has gone completely haywire and the ammonia levels have shot up rapidly.
Last week I found some blackworms in a pet store and thought it'd be a nice treat for my axies who had been living off crickets (the only live food my LFS sold except microworms). I put the worms in the jar and plopped it into the tank, my axies went a bit crazy and munched them down and a few escaped into the tank, I wasn't too worried cause I read they'd probably find them and eat them up.
A couple of days later I used my gravel vacuum to suck up debris around the tank, it seemed there were quite a few worms - more than I remember escaping anyway. I thought I'd got most if them, but then...
I checked the ammonia levels a couple of days after this cleaning and noticed the reading was a lot higher than it had been previously (just higher than 1ppm, throughout cycling it's mildly fluctuated around 0.25), I did a water change of 20%.
Another test the next morning showed it at around 2ppm, another bigger water change, by that evening when I tested again it was even higher - this is when I took my axies out and decided to pop them in the fridge for a 'chill out session.
After another big water change and letting the tank sit overnight I checked the levels again and they were at 8ppm. I was so glad I had taken my axies out the day before!!
Obviously something was very wrong, my assumption was that the leftover blackworms had died and started to rot.
I took everything out (but kept them submerged in tank water) and drained about 90% of the water and then vacuumed up as much as I could, I moved the sand around to get all the leftover worms out, I spent what seemed like hours using a turkey baster to suck up all the remaining worms - there were SO many more than I had initially thought.
After all that, I replaced the water and have been watching the levels closely. The ammonia levels dropped significantly, down to around 2-3ppm and then lower again, but for the past two days have been sitting on the higher end somewhere between 1-2ppm, I've been doing water changes of about 20% but the levels just don't seem to want to drop.
At the moment my Nitrite levels are 0.25ppm and Nitrate looks like it's at 5ppm.
What happened? Did my cycle crash? What exactly does that consist of anyway? Is it going through some kind of mini-cycle?
Is there a way I might be able to get the ammonia down?
I have an "ammonia remover" filter media bag (possibly zeolite?) which can be used temporarily in place of the carbon bag, should I use it?
I am also still randomly seeing worms, not very many but a few, most of which actually seem to be alive and attempt burrow into the sand as soon as I move in to grab them.
Is it possible there is something else as well as the blackworms that are causing the ammonia? I have several live plants, a big piece of driftwood and aquarium safe cave things..
For the moment my axies are fine in the fridge with their daily water changes and they can probably stay there for a little while, but it would be nice to have that extra fridge space back in the near future
so if anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them....
If you managed to get through all that, thanks ;D
Sorry this post is long-winded but I think the information is mostly relevant? Haha.
I have my axies setup in a large 3 ft tank. I was unaware of the cycling process before I had my axies and as such have been cycling the tank and monitoring it closely with daily water changes throughout the process.
Amazingly enough, they actually bred while this was happening.
Recently however my tank has gone completely haywire and the ammonia levels have shot up rapidly.
Last week I found some blackworms in a pet store and thought it'd be a nice treat for my axies who had been living off crickets (the only live food my LFS sold except microworms). I put the worms in the jar and plopped it into the tank, my axies went a bit crazy and munched them down and a few escaped into the tank, I wasn't too worried cause I read they'd probably find them and eat them up.
A couple of days later I used my gravel vacuum to suck up debris around the tank, it seemed there were quite a few worms - more than I remember escaping anyway. I thought I'd got most if them, but then...
I checked the ammonia levels a couple of days after this cleaning and noticed the reading was a lot higher than it had been previously (just higher than 1ppm, throughout cycling it's mildly fluctuated around 0.25), I did a water change of 20%.
Another test the next morning showed it at around 2ppm, another bigger water change, by that evening when I tested again it was even higher - this is when I took my axies out and decided to pop them in the fridge for a 'chill out session.
After another big water change and letting the tank sit overnight I checked the levels again and they were at 8ppm. I was so glad I had taken my axies out the day before!!
Obviously something was very wrong, my assumption was that the leftover blackworms had died and started to rot.
I took everything out (but kept them submerged in tank water) and drained about 90% of the water and then vacuumed up as much as I could, I moved the sand around to get all the leftover worms out, I spent what seemed like hours using a turkey baster to suck up all the remaining worms - there were SO many more than I had initially thought.
After all that, I replaced the water and have been watching the levels closely. The ammonia levels dropped significantly, down to around 2-3ppm and then lower again, but for the past two days have been sitting on the higher end somewhere between 1-2ppm, I've been doing water changes of about 20% but the levels just don't seem to want to drop.
At the moment my Nitrite levels are 0.25ppm and Nitrate looks like it's at 5ppm.
What happened? Did my cycle crash? What exactly does that consist of anyway? Is it going through some kind of mini-cycle?
Is there a way I might be able to get the ammonia down?
I have an "ammonia remover" filter media bag (possibly zeolite?) which can be used temporarily in place of the carbon bag, should I use it?
I am also still randomly seeing worms, not very many but a few, most of which actually seem to be alive and attempt burrow into the sand as soon as I move in to grab them.
Is it possible there is something else as well as the blackworms that are causing the ammonia? I have several live plants, a big piece of driftwood and aquarium safe cave things..
For the moment my axies are fine in the fridge with their daily water changes and they can probably stay there for a little while, but it would be nice to have that extra fridge space back in the near future
so if anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them....If you managed to get through all that, thanks ;D
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