Water Changes.

[flukes]

I was wondering if people doing water changes with rgavel in there tank use a gravel vac every time, the reason i ask is because i ve been doing daily water changes now and using a gravel vac every time. Anyway i tested for ammonia today and there was a trace of it and i came to the conclusion that because i was using the gravel vac every time it wasclearing the good baceria from the gravel. I tested the water in my storage drum and it had no trace of ammonia so i did a 30% water change. I thought because i run an ehiem classic 2213 aswell that there would be this bacteria in both the gravel and the filter?? Well this is the only thing i can think of that would be causing the ammonia. I havent used any meds for a while so the bio-logical filtration should still be in tact. You can see it in the fish when there is ammonia present, I was loking at them and they all seemed to be hudled together in the corner and the SSS had all his fins down and the blue diamond was hiding so much i couldnt tell. The first thing i tested for was ammonia and although it wasn't the color of the first reading on the chart (0.25) it was close enough. Would anyone have any other ideas why this ammonia could be present?? All i can do now is keep doing 2 water changes a day until it is completely gone.

Cheers
Scott

[Essayons89]

The bacteria will colonize every surface in the tank. Gravel, plants, rock, wood-- whatever decorations or equipment that is in the tank. The bacteria can't be uprooted by gravel vacs. What will harm the bacteria colonies is chlorine, swings in pH, temperature swings and medications. I gravel vac with every water change.

I'm not sure why yopu would be seeing ammonia if the biological filtration is intact. Have you added any more fish to the tank recently? Done anything different as far as cleaning the filters? What do you normally do when you perform maintenance on the tank?

Bryan

[flukes]

Well i use a gravel vac every day now and replace about 30% of the water. There as been nothing really that ive done differently, just a thought though Melafix wont harm the bacteria will it?? Just because i ve been using it every timei do a water change to minimise the stress. The only other thing is i had temp up around 31c and i ve been bringing it down, in 3 days its now at 28c could this have been too fast?? Also we had a few hot days and the last couple have been real cold so it might have had a big temp drop. Iam still having problems with a low ph IN the tank and when i am doing my waer changes the stored water is at 6.8 but the tank is less than 6.0. I dont know why it is dropping though, there is no peat and the only thing that could lower the ph is driftwood and i dont think there is enough in there too create such a drop. I also removed those rocks that i wasnt sure about it just seemed that about the time i put them in was about the time i was finding the lower ph's. So i guess all i can do is wait and see if the ph comes back up, just a question if say the rocks were bringing down the ph and i removed them will the ph increase if they were the reason? or will have too continue water changes to get it back to normal??
I was thinking of getting some of those ammonia balls, the absorbing ones but i thought if the balls are disolving all the ammonia then what will the bacteria have to use?? Correct me if iam wrong but if the ammonia is not there wont the bacteria die?

[Annie]

I do water changes every other day around 30-40% and also do gravel vac's. Everything seems to be in sync with the water pars and Discus.