(02-16-2017, 10:44 AM)Thor Wrote: I do not think you dug up nitrite. It could be something rotting in the substrate. You dug it up, and it produced more ammonia than usual. The system had more bacteria to feed on ammonia than the bacteria to feed on nitrite. So the ammonia was gone rather quickly, but the nitrite needed extra time to go down to 0ppm again.
Overfeeding not only can result in direct ammonia pollution from the leftover fish food. Even when all the food was eaten, the fish will produce extra waste and in return it means more ammonia anyway. When I feed my fish, I make sure there is no leftover at all. All fish food is gone within half a minute or so. Any more than that would be too much.
That's what I thought too. Makes sense. But seriously, 0/0/10, then less than 10 minutes after digging, 0/50+/10? I dug up enough ammonia to cycle into over 50ppm nitrite, and that cycle happened in less than 10 min? That seems rather extreme. Though the nitrite did get wiped out, by the nitrifying bacteria &/or the plants, in less than 24 hours. And I STILL have negligible nitrates. I am kinda thinking that maybe the plants suck so much nitrogen out if the water that they are taking it in any form they can get a hold of. It's a pretty densely planted tank, at least for me. not up to those whacky ADA tanks,
Feeding is a tough situation compared to anything else I've done. The Rams, tetras, the swordtail, the betta, the leaf fish, all come right at the food. SO that is pretty straight forward. then there are the 4 cories, the two plecos (one primarily carnivorous one primarily herbivorous.)They aren't all necessarily shy, but they don't come up at the food. The little zebra pleco worries me, I've read of them starving themselves to death. So I make sure some meat gets down there. Then the fact that every time I feed, It's hard to get the fish in one general area, all weaving and winding in between stem plants and vals, plus the water flow that is actual quite effective for only having a HOB. Obviously some food gets left behind, but not much. The corries work overtime, The rams, especially the largest gold female, clean everything that lands on leaves (swords, lilies/lotus), as well as the bottom. So do The leaf fish. There is never a visible bloodworm (and they stand out) after 15 minutes. I'm sure some brine or mysis shrimp go uneaten here and there, but it can't be much. There was a week or so a while back where I fed a little heavy, trying to get some nitrates in the water. I gave up on that. I am cutting the feeding back. I'm going to do an intentional test the next time I plant something. Do a water test, plant the item, and do an immediate water test. We'll see what that reveals.
I'd get you some pics, but I don't even remember what email I used for any of those old school photo accounts, much less a password. Lol. I'll figure something out, lol.
