I've moved the older bristlenose from my fry tank into my 3ft tank. I did a 99.99% water change on the fry tank, to hopefully get out all the ammonia. I cleaned the filter (Shark2).

For those who don't know, I added an ornament to my tank, which leached ammonia, resulting in my ammonia levels in the fry tank reaching 6.1. I did water changes, and it came back as 6.1. So it must've been way higher.
I did more water changes, and got it down to 2. Then I moved the bristlenose from the tank.

So now I'm wondering if I should change the filter pad in my filter (seeing the ammonia probably killed off my bacteria anyway) to prevent ammonia being leached out... OR wait a few days and test the water again, and maybe do another 100% water change, depending on the readings.

What do you think? Or any further suggestions?

I have new BN fry and want to move them there asap.

change the filter pad for sure it is not as if they cost a lot and it will ensure you can have your tank up and running again within the week

Try doing 30% water changes 2 times a day and after the second or third day it should be fine. I don't like doing big water changes like that because they tend to do more harm than good.

Just to clarify, there's no fish in there at the moment - so a large waterchange wouldn't stress fish... If that's your logic, cichlid commander?

he might be suggesting that it could disturb bacteria colonies but i doubt it without fish you could do very high water changes just try to keep filter material and gravel wet to keep bacteria alive

I thought you had fish in the tank, and yes I was thinking about not disturbing the bacteria sorry for the confusion. Did you remove the ornament that was leeching? also make sure you test kit didn't expire this happened to me in the past it had me running around in circles for weeks.

I certainly did remove the item that was leaching! It was crazy. I put it in a bucket to test it was leaching, and within 10 minutes the water was reading 2+. :o

Thanks for the heads up with the test kit. :up: I have a few more years left before it expires, though. :P

I will do 30% waterchanges twice a day, then. :up:

I've caught about 25 fry, sitting in a guppy tank, waiting for the fry tank. :D And I've got about 25 more in my actual tank that I can see. It's the biggest lot they've ever had... Which makes sense, seeing as they've grown. :P

What kind of decoration was it? That's kinda scary. I bet those baby bristlenose are incredibly cute! I hope things work out for you.

Its kind of difficult when things like this happen so what I do is try to rule out everything to get to the bottom of the problem.

when things like this happen just backtrack and think of the little things you have changed in you tank it usually will lead you to the solution to your problem

The ammonia won't kill the good bacteria, because that's what they feed on, that and Nitrites... but they are very bad for fish... so ideally, you would have enough bacteria to consume all the ammonia being produced or leeched and change it into nitrites and again enough bacteria to consume all of the nitrites and change them into nitrates... unfortunately with freshwater, this is where the cycle ends... so if you've got that much ammonia leeching in, your nitrates will climb somewhat quickly and cause you to have to do water changes more frequently.

I just learnt something new about cycling I must admit I don't understand it all but I just follow guidelines. I am starting to follow it now though.

One of my fishy-chemistry-uni guys told me that, when ammonia reaches over 6, it's too much and it kills bacteria.

When I had the 25 in the guppy tank, the next morning I awoke to SIXTY FOUR in my overflow. :o I've only managed to catch about 25 more, so now I've got 50 in a guppy tank. :P They're so cute. I will surely get pictures soon. :up:

I've been doing 30% waterchanges twice daily. I've used water from the tank the fry are currently in and 'fresh water' (out of the tap) interchangeably. No ammonia readings yesterday or so far today. :up: :up: Hopefully, the filter did not absorb too much or any ammonia, then! :D

The ornament was a piece of terracotta pot. I also have it in my pond and fish bowl. Fortunately, it was 'only' shrimp in both of those... But those shrimp are what alerted me to a problem, and allowed me to save Survivor. ;) So I'm greatful for their deaths. :(