# pottery caused ammonia spike?



## Karin (May 21, 2019)

when i looked at my fish today, i noticed their gills were reddish. i did a 30% water change right away. then tested. ammonium is somewhere between 0.25 and 0.5. nitrite 0. nitrate about 10ppm.
other than the red gills, there isn't much else to be observed.

the only thing that has changed in the past few days was the addition of a green colored, not glazed, piece of pottery. silly me thought it'd be a nice hideout for my clown plec. now i figure it must have leached something that killed some of the beneficial bacteria....
oh, and i got some shrimp pellets for the plec, which the guppies have been gobbling up - so i've been alternating that and flake food for them. not feeding excessively, i don't think....

i added a dose of nutrafin waste control, just because i had the bottle. and set up a small sponge filter with quartz bio balls in addition to the existing filter. 
will check ammonia later and likely do another water change.

can't be certain, but their gills seem to be looking less red already. though maybe that's just wishful thinking....

anything else you recommend i do?

(yeah, i took out the offending piece of pottery. and only wasted two thoughts of how to make it fish safe, before discarding the notion. )


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## Karin (May 21, 2019)

well, the water is back where it should be. 

actually clearer than it has been in a few days. maybe the extra filter made the difference...

i'll keep an eye on it though.


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