Ammonium & Bio Ring

kizwan

Member
Aug 17, 2019
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Kedah, Malaysia
Hello,

I have a 4 feet tank (119 gallon) which only 2/3 filled. It have canister filter with only sponge & wool filter media in it. I had a big gold fish (locally called "smangkin") & a gold gourami fish before but died after a couple of years. Because there is no fish interesting to me, I add one male betta fish in it around mid March this year.

6 days ago I add water lettuce mainly because I have so many of them & I want to save them to replenish my planted tanks if I need to. 3 days ago I add bio ring (ceramic ring) in the canister filter. For the water change I did partial water change like 15-20% every two weeks. Using water conditioner. PH is 6-7, temperature is 31.7C (fluctuates between 31-32). My betta didn't show any sign of stress & like to spent considerable amount of time swimming at the bottom. I think he like water lettuce too because he like to hangout near them.

I only have Api ammonia test kit. You can see the test result below. Since my betta look fine, I assume the test detected ammonium. Of course, the best course of action is by doing big water change (50%) because ammonium can change back to ammonia in right parameters like high pH & temperature. Considering pH & temperature are always stable, can I avoid doing big water change & wait for the beneficial bacteria to established on the bio ring? Once established, they should take care ammonia/ammonium right?

Thank you.

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