I have been keeping one or two dozen fishing minnows in 5 gallon buckets for a week or two at a time with no problems. I keep a bubbler going and usually do a full water exchange after letting a new bucket of water reach temperature. I usually throw in a teaspoon of "bait alive" type blue crystals in each new bucket of water to eliminate the chlorine. This has worked fine for several months with minimal dieoff.
Recently, while fishing, I slowly did a water exchange using lake water. After fishing all day I had probably exchanged 90% of the water. Temps were the same. Upon returning home I put the bubbler back in and also a new diy drip system of pumping a low flow rate of water through some filter media. The hope was to filter out some of the murkiness of the lake water and start buidling up some biofilter media.
Within 24 hours I had a few floaters and found my ammonia had spiked to around 5 ppm. I find this odd since I had put fresh lake water in there from the day before and had a relatively low number of minnows left (compared to prior populations of more with no ammonia spikes). Does lake water encourage this? Could it be my biofilter material caused it? I did use a piece of used filter media from a prior dried out filter.
I dropped an ammonia clearing tablet in the bucket to knock it back down. A little while later I noticed the surface was covered in small bubbles and it stayed that way until I sprinkled some coffee creamer on it. I guess this foam was accumulating due to the water quality haven gone to crap. I'm trying to learn - sorry for so many questions.
Recently, while fishing, I slowly did a water exchange using lake water. After fishing all day I had probably exchanged 90% of the water. Temps were the same. Upon returning home I put the bubbler back in and also a new diy drip system of pumping a low flow rate of water through some filter media. The hope was to filter out some of the murkiness of the lake water and start buidling up some biofilter media.
Within 24 hours I had a few floaters and found my ammonia had spiked to around 5 ppm. I find this odd since I had put fresh lake water in there from the day before and had a relatively low number of minnows left (compared to prior populations of more with no ammonia spikes). Does lake water encourage this? Could it be my biofilter material caused it? I did use a piece of used filter media from a prior dried out filter.
I dropped an ammonia clearing tablet in the bucket to knock it back down. A little while later I noticed the surface was covered in small bubbles and it stayed that way until I sprinkled some coffee creamer on it. I guess this foam was accumulating due to the water quality haven gone to crap. I'm trying to learn - sorry for so many questions.
