College Dormitory Fish Tank Dilemma

hulu

1. how often do you feed?
2. what are the nitrIte levels?
3. When was the last w/c
4. Frequency of w/c and amount?

1. I feed them 2-3 times a day
2. last time i checked, 0
3. i changed last night
4. normally i change it once a week but now i'm doing twice a week and it's 10% each change

I think this might have happened because i swapped my old filter with a penguin biowheel and i tossed the old filter cartridge. shame on me :[

hulu

Don't mean to double post but i just tested the water.

Here are my results:
nitrate: 0
nitrite: 0
hardness: ~120
alkalinity: ~180
pH: 7.2-7.6
ammonia seems to be at 2.0 now, though it's a little hard to discern between 1.0 to 4.0 with the color i'm getting-- the shades on the chart are really similar but 2.0 is my best guess :/

i'm using test strips for everything but the ammonia test. the ammonia test is liquid.

SinCrisis

Test strips are inaccurate and unreliable I would avoid them for testing your water. How much are you feeding in each feeding? Overfeeding often causes cloudy water as well. Ammonia should be 0 and you should have some nitrites. and lastly are you gravel vaccing when you do a water change?

MoneyMitch

your feeding WAY too much and not taking out enough water during your w/c's. keep doing 2 w/c a week but try bumping it up to 25%. after you refill with freshwater test for your ammonia if its above .25 ppm do another 25% change and repeat this untill you get that ammonia down. You are also going to want to tone feeding down to once a day maybe once every other day atleast untill your bb can chew away at some of that ammonia. and you are right about why this happend. Lesson learned right? we all make mistakes the important thing is that we learn from them.

Feel free to pm me if you ahve any urgencys with this tank and ill get back to you asap i check here about every hr or so jsut for things like that.

Mitch

SinCrisis

I feed my shrimp 2-3 times a day and its fine... i only feed 1-2 flakes per feeding though... if hes feeding really little amounts each time 2-3 might not be that much.

MoneyMitch

honestly either way you look at it its less hassle just to feed once a day if we suggest feeding small amounts 2-3 times a day i GUARANTEE itll end up being more than if we were to say once a day only. to the OP please feed once a day or once every other day.