At any rate, good luck with your trouble shooting/knowledge aquisition/validation or whatever it is you were looking for. This thread has become more hostile than I care for so I'm out
Ammonia only crash.
- Thread starter nfored
- Start date
I am not asking for help with how a crash can happen but how ammonia only can happen. I know how to deal whit the crash and how to cycle a tank This type of crash I never heard of before so I wanted others thoughts. I am not flaming f1 but being frustrated he is saying I am wrong about the tap water, and he then refused to believe even when 2 other independent sources confirmed. If you look my first comment to was are you sure you don't have it backwards talking about the ammonia vs nitrite, that not attacking. He is the one saying he seriously doubts my tap then refused to believe other posters. So yes thats frustrating as it has nothing to do with the topic of ammonia only crash.
Also I didn't add fish in two years, I fully understand why it crashed had nothing to do with care or upkeep but failures in equipment both times. f1 I was talking about testing your tap water not tank water if thats what you thought not sure. I never attack people or their setups or tanks feel free to find one post where I attacked someone unprovoked. Here you will find me only defending my claim of 1ppm tap water which has nothing to do with this post. Everyone seems to be talking how the crash itself happened when I am simply asking how can you loose only one type of bacteria, and as of yet know one has had any thoughts on that so it seems that this is unusual to only loose one.
Also F1 I said 1ppm tap and showed you a video and yet you still don't believe, so I don't know what it will take for you to beileve I guess I somehow doctered the video I posted or you refused to watch it because it would prove you wrong and me right.
Also I didn't add fish in two years, I fully understand why it crashed had nothing to do with care or upkeep but failures in equipment both times. f1 I was talking about testing your tap water not tank water if thats what you thought not sure. I never attack people or their setups or tanks feel free to find one post where I attacked someone unprovoked. Here you will find me only defending my claim of 1ppm tap water which has nothing to do with this post. Everyone seems to be talking how the crash itself happened when I am simply asking how can you loose only one type of bacteria, and as of yet know one has had any thoughts on that so it seems that this is unusual to only loose one.
Also F1 I said 1ppm tap and showed you a video and yet you still don't believe, so I don't know what it will take for you to beileve I guess I somehow doctered the video I posted or you refused to watch it because it would prove you wrong and me right.
I have a couple of thoughts to put out there. Either you clean the tank too much not allowing the bacteria to establish itself, Don't clean the tank enough, overwelming the bacteria, or you lack adaquite filtration where your bio-filter is not large enough to keep up with the amount of waste produced. Any one of these will cause you to see a slow rise in Ammonia over a few weeks. Partial water changes will lower it but each week you'll see it start to creep higher.
Now maybe something I have had the same amount of filter media and fish for 2 years, I never added more biomedia. Could it be that the bio media I have is basically at capacity so that when these failures occured the small amount of die is enough to cause a crash? where as if I had more room for bio load it might not have been noticed? My fish are getting bigger and I remember asking maybe a year ago if I should add more bio media as they grew and it was kind of a wait and see response. While I know that bacteria will only grow to what their is food if they are space starved to where they are just barely keeping up any loss would result in a slow rise? and if I remember correctly nitrite to nitrate grows quicker then the ammonia to nitrite so maybe there is a recycle there also but I am not seeing it because of the quicker growth?
The funny thing is after I lost my big pump last time and had to replace it with two smaller ones, which caused the first crash, I said never again and bought two big pumps. I said now I am safe from hardware failure, but I never stopped to think about GFI tripping even though I know it happens.
Try increasing your Bio-filter add an HOB packed with more Bio-media a sponge filter somthing to increase the Bio-capacity you get the idea, and see if that doesn't do it for you.
Do to setup I really cant ad HOB but I can toss in another 2 litters of BioMatrix. I have an over head filer setup and my acrylic tank wont allow HOB, but I have around 4000GPH going through my over head filter so adding more media there will hopefully help.
F1 I think the issue with my water is in part due to the plumbing of my home, house is built in 1950's that's the only logical thing I can think of. When I look at the water report the ammonia level is very low on the city's report it shows ammonia as unregulated and a range from 0.07ppm to 0.72ppm. Sorry if I came across as a jerk I am used to fighting to prove my statements working in IT.
F1 I think the issue with my water is in part due to the plumbing of my home, house is built in 1950's that's the only logical thing I can think of. When I look at the water report the ammonia level is very low on the city's report it shows ammonia as unregulated and a range from 0.07ppm to 0.72ppm. Sorry if I came across as a jerk I am used to fighting to prove my statements working in IT.
Alright, sorry for calling you out since you werent trying to flame F1, :grouphug:
Adding more media is rarely a bad idea, especially with your flow rate so high you wont suffer much, so I say go for it. And whats your pH? If your ammonia is shifting your pH should be moving too if it shifts enough, unless there is something in the water that is giving a false reading, but I dont suspect as much.
My guess (and its just a guess) is that something happened the water (foreign material, lack of oxygen, circulation, etc) that killed off the ammonia breaking down bacteria, but the denitrifying bacteria survived because they werent susceptible to the event. They may not have been starved for long enough to die off so your ammonia isnt being converted, so it spikes, the nitrite isnt being created so it levels. Nitrite would consumed, but there isnt any, so no new nitrate is being created.
At any rate, i think your idea of adding media is good. I also think youve done enough water changes and general maintenance that you might be ready to just let the tank cycle. In that case keep an eye on your ammonia lvl. Keep us posted on your progress. Ive never heard of anything wiping only one set of bacteria before but for all I know it may be something people have encountered before and that may be what happened here.
If I can figure anything helpful out I'll post it when I can. Good luck and let us know what you find
Adding more media is rarely a bad idea, especially with your flow rate so high you wont suffer much, so I say go for it. And whats your pH? If your ammonia is shifting your pH should be moving too if it shifts enough, unless there is something in the water that is giving a false reading, but I dont suspect as much.
My guess (and its just a guess) is that something happened the water (foreign material, lack of oxygen, circulation, etc) that killed off the ammonia breaking down bacteria, but the denitrifying bacteria survived because they werent susceptible to the event. They may not have been starved for long enough to die off so your ammonia isnt being converted, so it spikes, the nitrite isnt being created so it levels. Nitrite would consumed, but there isnt any, so no new nitrate is being created.
At any rate, i think your idea of adding media is good. I also think youve done enough water changes and general maintenance that you might be ready to just let the tank cycle. In that case keep an eye on your ammonia lvl. Keep us posted on your progress. Ive never heard of anything wiping only one set of bacteria before but for all I know it may be something people have encountered before and that may be what happened here.
If I can figure anything helpful out I'll post it when I can. Good luck and let us know what you find
Add the aditional Biomatrix it will help you. I think you have just overwelmed the Bio-capacity of your filter. You didn't wipe out only one type of bacteria you just reached Bio overload. Continue to use the Prime until the added Biomatrix gets established. If you have any media from another tank you could add that also.
