I have a bit of a problem going on with my water that I can't figure out. The tank that my Leos are in has had a mature filtration system for years. I've never had any problems with water in the past and follow a water change schedule of 50% every few days.
This past Sunday I went and added a 1l container of Matrix bio-media by seachem to one of my canister filters. This filter had other mature bio-media already and water quality previous to this was just fine. However, a day after adding (also the day after a water change) ammonia readings have spiked. I just don't get it. No nitrite and the fish (thankfully) are acting completely normal. The Rays are scooting around like they always have the for the 5 years I've had them and nobody else is showing signs of ammonia poisoning. I do have lots of aeration in the tank and the pH is around 6.8. I never thought that adding more bio-media to an already mature system could cause a "cycle" like this. It's not a new tank, nothing has changed. I've just added more media to a system that was already handling the bio-load just fine. I've added other brands of media before in similar quantities (last month 1l of Eheim Substrat Pro) with no hiccoughs in water quality. I just figured that since my Rays are growing and I had room in the filters I could add some more.
Is this the reason for the spike? Could it somehow be a false reading? I don't use any chemical-altering conditioners like Amquel, etc and my tap water tests 0 for ammonia. Could it be something with the Matrix media? It's not supposed to be anything but something for bacteria to colonize.
Needless to say I'm not going to feed my guys tonight, but should I be doing yet another water change? Upon seeing those ammonia readings I did a big one last night. Ammonia levels still have not gone down.
This past Sunday I went and added a 1l container of Matrix bio-media by seachem to one of my canister filters. This filter had other mature bio-media already and water quality previous to this was just fine. However, a day after adding (also the day after a water change) ammonia readings have spiked. I just don't get it. No nitrite and the fish (thankfully) are acting completely normal. The Rays are scooting around like they always have the for the 5 years I've had them and nobody else is showing signs of ammonia poisoning. I do have lots of aeration in the tank and the pH is around 6.8. I never thought that adding more bio-media to an already mature system could cause a "cycle" like this. It's not a new tank, nothing has changed. I've just added more media to a system that was already handling the bio-load just fine. I've added other brands of media before in similar quantities (last month 1l of Eheim Substrat Pro) with no hiccoughs in water quality. I just figured that since my Rays are growing and I had room in the filters I could add some more.
Is this the reason for the spike? Could it somehow be a false reading? I don't use any chemical-altering conditioners like Amquel, etc and my tap water tests 0 for ammonia. Could it be something with the Matrix media? It's not supposed to be anything but something for bacteria to colonize.
Needless to say I'm not going to feed my guys tonight, but should I be doing yet another water change? Upon seeing those ammonia readings I did a big one last night. Ammonia levels still have not gone down.
