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So I have been struggling for a while after having to replace my tank that was damaged in an earthquake. See this thread for background here.
After getting a new batch of guppies when I thought things were fine, I started losing them again. I decided to go to my LFS for some advice and had them test my water. The only thing they found was some phosphorous, which is likely from my fertilizer. 0 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 10-20 Nitrate 7.2 pH and 140? GH.
After hearing my story he thought the issue was ammonia spikes that I was not seeing in readings because they were temporary. But the guppies were the most sensitive to it. His reasoning was that I left some water in my filter and I didn't rinse the BIO media when I cleaned it out before hooking it back up. His advice was to just wait and the BB would recolonize.
So last night I was checking the ammonia and nitrite levels (both still 0) when it occurred to me to maybe try another spot in my tank closer to the outflow from the filter. And sure enough, trace ammonia... So I then took water directly from the filter and I came up with a reading of .5 ppm, still 0 Nitrite.
Knowing there was ammonia still in the tank I went ahead and dosed Prime and then started a new tank dosing schedule of Stability to try and boost the BB in the tank.
So, with all that, I have a few questions.
After getting a new batch of guppies when I thought things were fine, I started losing them again. I decided to go to my LFS for some advice and had them test my water. The only thing they found was some phosphorous, which is likely from my fertilizer. 0 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 10-20 Nitrate 7.2 pH and 140? GH.
After hearing my story he thought the issue was ammonia spikes that I was not seeing in readings because they were temporary. But the guppies were the most sensitive to it. His reasoning was that I left some water in my filter and I didn't rinse the BIO media when I cleaned it out before hooking it back up. His advice was to just wait and the BB would recolonize.
So last night I was checking the ammonia and nitrite levels (both still 0) when it occurred to me to maybe try another spot in my tank closer to the outflow from the filter. And sure enough, trace ammonia... So I then took water directly from the filter and I came up with a reading of .5 ppm, still 0 Nitrite.
Knowing there was ammonia still in the tank I went ahead and dosed Prime and then started a new tank dosing schedule of Stability to try and boost the BB in the tank.
So, with all that, I have a few questions.
- Anything else I can do that might be helpful?
- Is it safe to dose prime every day if there is ammonia in the tank?
- Is it possible that my BIO media is compromised and in need of replacement? I'm using Seachem Matrix in a SUNSUN canister.
