yellow water

[Goon]

This issue is not for discus but for my axolotl tank (mexican walking fish) but discus keepers are the most knowledgeably bout water quality :bounce: so i thought what better forum to ask than SD , tank size is 20 gallon with 2 axolotls and bare bottom running fluval aqua clear 70 tank, ammonia is around .25 and sometimes .5 ( have had them for almost a year now with this ammonia level parameters). i dont have any flow in the tank since it stresses them out ( i use a bath sponge reduce the water flow to drip down). at first i thought it was my water source but my discus tank is crystal clear, was wondering if i could get some feed back from the water gods :D

[gators111]

Couple of ?'s
1. What is your ph?
2. Do you have driftwood in the tank?
3. Is the sponge new, and did you thoroughly clean it before putting in the tank?
4. How long has the tank been up and running?
5. Are you on well or municipal water?

[DJW]

One more question:

do you have carbon in the filter?

[Goon]

ph is around 8.2, no driftwood, i wash the bath sponge every 2 weeks, tank has been running close to 7 months now, municipal water.

[gators111]

Washing the sponge every 2 weeks could be contributing to the elevated ammonia levels, since you're killing off, at least a portion of the nitrobacters/sommas in it. As far the tint, yeah it could be carbon leaching stuff back into the water, if it's old. You could check for elevated phosphates, maybe it is some sort of bacterial/algae bloom. Could be from overfeeding or some new food you are using. You could try running new carbon in the AC70 and see if that clears it up. I don't know what else to say.

[Kyla]

wash the sponge in fish-tank water to prevent harming BB
how often and what % water do u change?
could food be getting trapped anywhere in the set up and rotting?
maybe if ur ammonia is always present it means there is not enough surface area for the beneficial bacteria to colonize on so it is never fully able to break down all the ammonia being produced...
what kind of media do u have in ur filter? can u add any more bio balls to the filter? if not, i'd add another small aqua clear onto the tank with just bio balls and see if it makes a difference (will take some time for BB to colonize the new media). if surface area is the issue that ammonia should drop and stay at 0.

[Kyla]

personally i would ditch the carbon and just use sponge + bioballs in the aquaclear.