Ammonia in a cycled tank

[twoluvcats]

My snail nursery crashed....I'm testing out .5ppm of ammonia (on the AP ammonia test), no nitrites, ~5ppm nitrates. This tank was cycled for 3 weeks before the ammonia spiked.

Do you think it was caused from the babies hatching...i.e. the bio-load took off and the nitrifying bactieria couldn't keep up?

Poor snail babies someday, some will survive *sigh*

[amanichen]

It's possible, but it's difficult to say. You'd have to look at the ammonia concentration over time, and see what happened to it shortly after the snails were born.

[twoluvcats]

JAVA MOSS TO THE RESCUE!! lol

I tested the tank on friday...was still reading 0.5ppm of ammonia. Put in some Java moss friday afternoon, tested again tonight and the ammonia is gone ...and the nitrates are coming back...i think it may have stabalized. <fingers crossed>

[amanichen]

Good =)