Levels Rising... Please help!!

JB wrote:
carlrs wrote:
kietz wrote:
JB wrote:
kietz wrote:
JB wrote:

I meant tyo type AmQuel Plus is supposed to treat Nitrate, Nitrite &
Ammonia.. I listed Nitrate twice for those who noticed.. Also after
washing my hands 2-3 times there's still a slight rotten egg or so
smell on my hands after dealing with my aquarium if this helps point
the way to diagnosis and treatment...

Amquel can have a strong sulfur smell. Could that be the source of your
rotten egg smell?

kietz

no, because this was going on days before I started treatment.. I
haven't smelled regular AmQuel, but the new AmQuel Plus doesn't have an
odor to me..


In that case you probably should follow Gill's advice...

good luck,

kietz

As stated by kietz Amquel may be a source of rotten egg smell, Amquel,
Prime and similar products are made of Hydrosulfite salts. Also as
stated already never totally clean all your filter media, rinse in used
tank water or de-chlorinated tap water.
As you remove the decaying food by vacuuming this also may address your
kH problem. Decay will produce nitric acids which will deplete kH.
Check you tap water to make sure there is 80 ppm in the water you are
adding back. Driftwood or Mango wood can contribute to kH depletion
too.
Here is an article about kH:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/AquariumKH.html

Carl

Yeah, my AmQuel Plusâ„¢ has no smell, and the problem lied in my tank
"before" any addition of the product.. My tap water has a KH of 40ppm
at most....... I do not have anything more than plastic plants, one
small 5" coral, and around 1" thick of gravel..

I have a bubble stone trying to help out with aeration, and in the past
3 days have done 2x 25% water changes to try to drop my levels..

My Nitrites went from 10.0ppm to 3.0ppm, and still lingering..

My Nitrates went from around 80ppm to 40ppm and linger... My KH has
been dropping from around 80ppm, to 40ppm and staying...

My GH is staying around 75ppm, and my ph dropped from 7.2ppm to
6.8ppm......

I do not have a kit that can test ammonia but assume that's probably
not normal either..

So to date I have tried several days of AmQuel Plusâ„¢, 2x 25% water
changes in 3 days, Stopped my fish feeding to reduce waste for a few
days, tried adding Tetra EasyBalanceâ„¢ to help neutralize all
advertised levels, and have ben adding Cycleâ„¢ to my water weekly as
directed to regain my beneficial bacteria...

I have no idea of what to do now while my tank is re-cycling besides
maybe change 25% of the water every other day until the cycle
stabilizes..

Any potential tips, additives, etc from this most recent post??..
Also to re-mention I have 3x 2" SwordTail fish, and they have given
birth to about 16 fry which took place about 3 weeks ago, and the fry
reside in a net in the corner of my 10 Gallon tank...

Currently you seem to be taking appropriate steps, but the dropping kH
still indicates to me you either have too much acid production
somewhere or your tap is very acid with 0 kH. Based on your high
nitrite and nitrate levels I would guess that you still have decay and
waste breakdown going on somewhere.

*Make sure to test your water that you are performing water changes
with to verify this is helping your problem.

*Make sure you vacuum in all areas of your aquarium during your water
changes, in particular under rocks and decor to make sure ALL decaying
mulm is removed. Also make sure ALL filters do not have a mulm buildup
somewhere, canister and wet-dry filters are notorious for this.

*Note that the Amquel is not a solution to your problem, just a band
aid until your cycle improves or you find the cause of this such as
wastes build up.

*When you clean filters, rinse your media in used tank water or
de-chlorinated tap water, never in straight tap water. Also never
change all media at once.

*Consider an additional filter, such as a sponge filter to increase
your bio capacity.

*Besides cutting back on feeding, consider if your tank is over
crowded. And back to feeding, make sure you feed a food that is highly
digestible such as Spirulina based flakes, and not ones loaded in
animal proteins and cereal that will add to the bio load.

Carl
http://www.americanaquariumproducts....formation.html