Yesterday I did a 50% water change. Before doing it i tested and ammonia was at 0 along with nitrites at 0. I did it my usual way, 50% taken out of my 90 gallon tank and refilled with buckets. What i did was add a capfull of prime to the first bucket of tap water and that was it. The rest of the buckets had no prime added. Today, around 12 hours after, I test the water and my ammonia was at 0.5 ppm and nitrite at 0.25 ppm. What could've caused this? Did i uncycle my tank or is the prime in the water and somehow messing with the API liquid test kit? I tested the tap and ammonia and nitrites are 0.
Did I uncycle my tank?
- Thread starter shua71
- Start date
That's odd. Shouldn't matter when you add your prime, long as you don't have your filters running during the water change. Otherwise I'd guess maybe some chlorine could get into the filters and cause this. Not sure though.
I know some people get away with that method, but to my understanding it makes it possible for the filters to suck up the potentially chlorinated water, posing a threat to the BB. Without adding it to the last buckets, you could have done this in my guess. Of course the water would eventually (meaning within a short bout of time) get dechlorinated, but not immediately.
I've had that same problem several times in the past. Most of the time it was caused by trying to vacuum too much of the gravel in one go.
A good point, as substrate was never mentioned ... waste could get trapped in it and release toxins into the water. Another possible reason? Don't know if you have sand or gravel, what type, etc. Or even if you vacuumed.
Are you sure of this? I freaked out and just did another 50% change and added prime to each bucket..
ALso I have no substrate. Barebottom so that can't be the issue.
