Ammonia question

[Uelrindru]

So I've been running my little five gallon tank moderately? planted with a betta and three otos with no problems. Didn't cycle it cause I didn't understand you could do fishless cycling until a book I found mentioned it, of course after I bought it and the fish. I got the betta from petsmart so I didn't get good info from them and then when I started seeing algae show up I got an oto on the advice of a better fish store and some sand from an established tank so I was able to not cycle it.
I learned more about otos and decided to get two more two weeks later.
The tank had been going for a week with no variation in params except nitrates I did a water change and two days later I get an ammonia reading. Odd, I change water, it goes away, two more days go by and it happens again. This morning I did another change just to be sure and started looking for one of the otos I couldn't find and noticed something black in one of my plants. On closer inspection I saw it was fly dead in the water. I got it out and want to make sure that that would cause a .25 ammonia swing every couple days or if it might be something else. I obviously have no idea how long the fly was there.

 

[achase]

How old is your tank? What are your current readings for ammonia, nitrate and nitrite?
If you didn't cycle you tank your tank is probably currently cycling. If you tank isn't cycled you will need to do lots of water changes to minimize the effect on the fish.

 

[Uelrindru]

The last water change I did two days ago had ammonia at 1ppm nitrites at 5ppm and I don't remember the nitrates but it was really low just barely registered. I've been doing big water changes 50+% every two days and since all of my fish can breathe air I'm thinking this is really helping. The betta is doing fine and the otos freak a bit but then go back to their normal lives shortly after the water is returned. My otos are so dark it almost looks like their black and the betta just wanders around the tank occasionally messing with otos but mostly just attacking random rocks on the bottom or algae tabs which he apparently abhores and believes are sins against nature.

 

[bassbonediva]

I would be doing 50% daily water changes, not every other day. It's not the oxygenation of the water that is the problem, it's the ammonia and nitrite levels, both of which are very toxic to fish in any quantity. It will help keep your fish less stressed and healthy if you do water changes daily until your tank is fully cycled (0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and between 10-20 nitrates).

 

[Uelrindru]

Ok I'll move it up to daily, I'm so irrated because I know how this started. I got a tab to lower ammonia and found out after adding it that it would do that for weeks so I effectively uncycled my tank because I can't read.
Also, if my chem and bio filter are the same medium does this mean the tank will recycle every time I change it and I should find something I can change out gradually? I never understoof how bio filtration could work if you have to change the medium and can't find anything that addresses that issue.

 

[bassbonediva]

You should only be changing your filter media when it is literally falling apart. Every time you do a water change (after you tank is cycled), all you have to do is take out your filter media and swish it around (or squeeze it out) in the bucket of tank water you just removed from the tank. I usually keep spare media in my canister filter on my 55gal, so if I need to change any of my media out, I can just grab some from there. However, in almost a year of having my Penguin 170 running (constantly), I have yet to change out the media.

 

[littletankbigworld]

You should only be changing your filter media when it is literally falling apart. Every time you do a water change (after you tank is cycled), all you have to do is take out your filter media and swish it around (or squeeze it out) in the bucket of tank water you just removed from the tank. I usually keep spare media in my canister filter on my 55gal, so if I need to change any of my media out, I can just grab some from there. However, in almost a year of having my Penguin 170 running (constantly), I have yet to change out the media.

Can you rinse Aqua-Clear media? (Obviously, I wouldn't rinse all the media at once.) I recently switched filters on my main tank and filter media is so expensive, but I don't want to ruin my filter.

+1 on everything bass has said.

 

[achase]

Can you rinse Aqua-Clear media? (Obviously, I wouldn't rinse all the media at once.) I recently switched filters on my main tank and filter media is so expensive, but I don't want to ruin my filter.

If you didn't use filter media what would you use?

 

[bassbonediva]

Can you rinse Aqua-Clear media? (Obviously, I wouldn't rinse all the media at once.) I recently switched filters on my main tank and filter media is so expensive, but I don't want to ruin my filter.

Yes, you can. I have an AquaClear 50 on my 29gal and every time I do a water change, I take out the basket of media and rinse it. I squeeze out the sponge (don't actually rinse it, just get the worst of the black gunk off), gently rinse off the ring things and the carbon, then put it all back together. Next month I'm going to be removing the carbon (since it's used up anyway) and either putting in blue filter pad or another sponge.