New Tank

[Chris.d514]

Nothing else dead cleaned the top 1.5" of sand with gravel vac and I have 5 bronze crypts, 2 bunches of mondo grass and som water sprite.

[aquabee]

Is there something dead in the tank that you can't see? I'm sure you've gotten all the leftover food out after doing those water changes, if you're using a gravel vac or something.

Any plants still in there? Those should be soaking up the nitrates like nobody's business.

[Chris.d514]

.25 ammonia and 0 nitrites.

[aquabee]

Been doing 75% water changes everyday or every other day for almost a week now and nitrate levels are still at 40-80. I just had a ram bloat up and die in a matter of hours, it was fine at feeding time around 10am and died about 3 pm. Any ideas?

What are your ammonia and nitrite levels?

[Chris.d514]

Been doing 75% water changes everyday or every other day for almost a week now and nitrate levels are still at 40-80. I just had a ram bloat up and die in a matter of hours, it was fine at feeding time around 10am and died about 3 pm. Any ideas?

[Chris.d514]

Did a 75% wc today and I cleaned out the filters intake system the tubes and impeller and after that my flow doubled so I'm hoping that he problem was just a clogged filter.

[LooksLater]

Really, the only good answer is- as often as you need to. Remember, if ammonia is spiking, your nitrites are soon to follow- both of which will kill. Nitrates are "less" poisonous, but will contribute to illness and short life span. Watch you numbers and WC as much as you need to to keep the levels down until it's done cycling.

[Chris.d514]

How often do I need to water change? I just did 50% on Tuesday.

[mnemenoi]

Indeed, it is likely having what we refer in the hobby to as a mini cycle. It is adapting to the larger bioload, water changes will clear up the ammonia and allow the biological filtration to catch up.

[LooksLater]

Yes, water change...

[Chris.d514]

So just checked water after 50% water changes yesterday. My daughters tank was 0-0-20 and mine was .25-0-80(ammonia, nitrites, nitrates). I added some prime to my tank but should I be worried with nitrates that high?

[mnemenoi]

No worries on the assassin with larger snails, especially very large ones. They can only attack and overcome smaller snails, so they predate upon the offspring. That is why it usually takes time to allow assassins to clean a tank infestation. They will never kill the adults, usually just the offspring. With manual removal of the adults you see, it is very effective eventually.

[Chris.d514]

Yeah but the blue showed back up. The assassin is maybe half the size of the mystery snails too.

[Bedlamer]

Do you have the assassin snail in the same tank as the mystery snail?

[Chris.d514]

I just don't want 50000 snails I actually bought an ivory and a blue mystery snail for my daughters tank. We haven't seen the blue in a couple of days but the ivory is all over the tank cleaning and the assassin pops up every now and then.