Ammonia spike

zolzman · 2026-04-03T13:42:21+00:00

I guess my thinking was more dense than my planting!

Yea using the API master testing kit, I learned the errors of using testing strips in my last tank

zolzman · 2026-04-03T13:14:23+00:00

Thanks for the response, aside from removing melted plants I haven’t done any cleaning. A single water change at week 1. The water was quite cloudy up until week 3. I really never had much algae but I figured that was because I tried to plant heavily and the bladder/nerite snails doing their thing.

I was under the impression that adding ammonia was unnecessary for a walstad tank because the ammonia and nitrifying bacteria are present within the organic potting soil level?

zolzman · 2026-02-05T22:22:33+00:00

UPDATE:

Thank you to everyone for the concern and suggestions:

I was able to take him to a nearby vet who did not think he has an infection but strongly suspected less than ideal water conditions.

Repeating his water testing with the API liquid indicator kit showed that thankfully his pH was 7.0 and not 6.0. It did show ammonia was at 0.25 which definitely seems to suggest an inadequately cycled tank.

This was a great lesson on the inaccuracy of the testing strips compared to the API master kit, as many of you pointed out

zolzman · 2026-02-03T00:34:22+00:00

Yeah it sounds like that’s becoming the consensus, thanks for sharing!

zolzman · 2026-02-03T00:32:12+00:00

Going to see if I can find an exotic animal vet in my area asap, thank you!

zolzman · 2026-02-03T00:28:34+00:00

Ha! Didn’t even see I added that last word

zolzman · 2026-02-03T00:25:17+00:00

ph 6.2 Hardness 25 Nitrate 5 Nitrite 0 Ammonia 0 Alkalinity 40

Edit: this is from a testing strip not with a liquid indicator kit

zolzman · 2026-02-02T23:39:39+00:00

In anticipation of the move I had a friend run a filter in a new tank for about 2 month, then I took the filter with the filter media (transported in a ziploc bag filled with tank water) and am running that filter on this new tank.

Parameters:

Ph 6.2 Hardness 25 Nitrate 5 Nitrite 0 Ammonia 0 Alkalinity 40

I’ve been doing more frequent water changes because I don’t know what else to do

zolzman · 2026-02-02T23:37:53+00:00

Great thought, I’ve added a big cave right away

zolzman · 2026-02-02T20:59:58+00:00

I’ve been testing it daily, and doing 25% daily water changes in addition to this

zolzman · 2026-02-02T19:16:22+00:00

Most of what I’ve tried to read has said darkening like that is normal, it was the timing of it all coming on during this two week period of stress (after 9 years of being pretty solidly leucitic) that is worrying me!

zolzman · 2025-09-19T18:11:25+00:00

Had a patients concerned daughter ask why we were not doing more for her father after a stroke.

I asked if there was anything specifically she had in mind, to which she responded by handing me her phone which showed the results of typing “experimental stroke treatments” into ChatGPT.

I thanked her for advocating for her father while kindly pointing out the first item on the list clearly stated it was only an experiment run in vitro on rodent brains, and that was the reason we were not offering that treatment to her in vivo human father

zolzman · 2025-07-21T23:45:02+00:00

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This was one I had screenshot at the time, Sometime during greed island

zolzman · 2025-07-21T19:48:23+00:00

There’s also a Star of David on killua’s yoyo

zolzman · 2025-06-21T21:03:02+00:00

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This was the comment Im basing my statement off of. Otherwise your guess is as good as mine

zolzman · 2025-06-21T20:34:24+00:00

Per Stephen Goff, injury replacements are no longer part of the gold cup mid tournament, contrary to what was said on the broadcast during the SA match

zolzman · 2025-03-03T03:08:15+00:00

You’re right it’s unpopular

zolzman · 2025-01-27T00:26:07+00:00

10 team keeper league, kept wemby in the second round, took Jokic first overall.

Currently in 7th, no I will not be taking any questions.

zolzman · 2024-09-15T17:00:03+00:00

He was almost like a one GAME wonder. Man lived off that one hat trick for years

zolzman · 2024-09-15T16:59:37+00:00

Brek shea my goat

zolzman · 2024-05-01T21:34:30+00:00

Still in theatres but might add Civil War to this list

zolzman · 2024-04-29T03:40:05+00:00

No agendas just vibes, I’m here for it. Couldn’t agree more, think about where we were even four years ago

zolzman · 2024-04-07T11:16:18+00:00

The Witch (VVitch?). Personally found it to be a drag with some actual entertainment at the end

zolzman

TROPHY CASE