Ammonia

[unspoken930]

I have a 2.5 US gallon aquarium with a filter, and it is veryyy heavily planted. There is a rather large piece of driftwood in it as well. I was planning to use this for about 4-6 cherry shrimps (following the rule of 1 shrimp per 1/4 gallon i should be fine) There are a few snails that snuck in on the plants, but i like the snails (i keep them in all of my tanks, i figure they eat any leftover food and some algae) however, the ammonia keeps climbing after i do huge water changes. The other day i got sick of the 2.0 ammonia that hasnt changed in the past 3 weeks (after various water changes) and i did a 75% water change yesterday, only to find that today when i tested my water for ammonia, it was at 5.0... i realy dont think about 5 snails could have done this, so could it be the driftwood? im so confused by this

 

[Sasha]

How long has the tank been set up? What are the other test readings beside ammonia - nitrite, nitrate and pH?

 

[unspoken930]

How long has the tank been set up? What are the other test readings beside ammonia - nitrite, nitrate and pH?

Its been up for about 3-4 weeks now (with the current filter... the old filter was horrid)

The pH is 6.5, High Range pH is 7.4, nitrate is 30 ppm and nitrite is 0.... these are all the tests ive got

 

[Sasha]

The nitrate seems a bit high too.

Is the tank a new set up?

 

[unspoken930]

Everything i read says nitrate should be less then 40 ppm for most freshwater tanks, so i thought i was okay.... oh well guess i have that too... and yes the tank is set up, its full of live plants and has driftwood and of course a filter

 

[Sasha]

Yes, it's recommended to keep the nitrate under 40ppm. The lower, the better.

If the tank is a new set up, it could just be cycling. Just continue to do water changes and that should help bring the ammonia down.