Ammonia issues

[ptran]

I'm thinking once a month on a 10 gallon is really stretching it. What is in the tank?

[Crush]

I had mollies, neon tetras, glowlight tetras, and my two crayfish in it. had that tank for a year or so. Mollies were multiplying soo much I had to break down and get this 60 I have now. last two months of having that 10gallon set up I was doing more clean up in it but for nearly a year I was doing once a month 75% water change, gravel vac, and filter change.

[Crush]

the mollies is what killed it for the 10gallon

[ptran]

Agreed. It sounds like overstocking for a 10 gallon. You might have to step up on the water change schedule to keep Nitrate under control.

[morpheus]

mollies breed pretty readily no matter what conditions when i kept them. that is a lot though to put in a 10gal tank. like troy and ptran, i pretty much do 40-50% changes weekly on my larger tanks. i never even test my water anymore. if i get lazy, fish definitely let me know asap if they act slightest bit sluggish (not going to top for food).

my 10gal i go about a month between WCs, but they are also under stocked and live plants to absorb the nitrates. almost self sustaining tanks at this point other than topping off

[ptran]

I don't do wc after heavy rain. Period. I would wait at least 2 days after rain to do wc.

I also use 2 carbon filters in series (for sale at Walmart at RV section) and SeaChem Safe at every wc. Can't take any risk.

[Crush]

I agree...I started out with only 3 mollies...ended up overloaded with them within a couple of months.

[Crush]

checked my water this morning and everything is looking pretty good...0 ammonia, .25 nitrite, 5 nitrate