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Im concerned that my ammonia seems to have risen to around 0.25. I've been thinking about doing regular water changes to help combat this, anything else I should do?

My other parametres look well, nitrite and nitrates at 0, my PH is at 7.2

My other concern is on my HOB filter, the wool i have infront and behind the charcol gets very dirty, very fast, say from complete white to brown within a day or two, my tankisn't heavily stocked but it does have alot of driftwood (I remvoed one peice), could this be the problemand if so what should I do? get a second filter?

Water changes "should" help but at the moment I would be far more concerned why it is increasing.
I might be a good idea to post in complete detail every thing about your tank including two full water tests one from your tank and one from your water supply.
As you know every bit of info no matter how small will help.
To start off with.
Why charcoal?
It could be tannin is the tank water a light tea colour?
The ammonia problem could even be the HOB problem. It could be either too small or not doing its job efficiently.
Again the filter brand, model and how old is it?
How often is it fully cleaned and the wool replaced?
You might not require a second filter just a bigger and better quality one or better maintenance.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info
Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
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Tank: Ammonia .25
Nitite .0
Nitrate .0 (Slightly strong color perhaps a 1)
PH: 7.2

My concern I added in the post above is whether my filter is working as well as it could, if it gets dirty so fast from taking in driftwood maybe it isn't filtering as well as it could be?

My water conditioner says it removes ammonia and the rest, also detoxifies Nitrites/Nitrates. I added some of this to my tank directly as it says on the side it is safe to do so.

My fish appear to be perfectly fine and I haven't had any losses yet, and I hope not to have any hence I'm posting as soon as I've tested.

I'll beheading out shortly but I will post my tap water readings later tonight.

I've quickly done a second reading on my ammonia as that is at the moment most concerning. I've rinsed one well in tap water then read it, and the other rinsed well in tank water before reading, they both apear equal at just below the .25.

As in they aren't solid yellow but they are not quite .25.

Hi,
Since this is not a new tank just starting to cycle,
I'd go back and reread the water conditioner bottle.
Somewhere on it, or in the literature that comes with it
I believe it will give you a caution that its use may
give you a false reading. The problem is that the
conditioner changes the ammonia from a toxic form to a
non-toxic form. However the test kit cannot distinguish
between the two types of ammonia and gives you an ammonia
reading when its actually the non-toxic form.
Chloramine is a compound of chlorine and ammonia, and the
conditioner breaks the bonds and detoxifies the ammonia.
Generally folks will get a reading of 0.25 when this
happens.

The coloration of your filter wool indicates that you have
a lot of particulate material (detritus) floating around
in the tank. It could be anything from gravel dust, to
excess foods to sawdust & splinters from the wood.
Sounds like you should be doing a good cleaning, including
a gravel vacuuming and scrubbing the driftwood with a
stiff bristled brush.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

I have been carefully cleaning the gravel one half per water change =) but I suppose a good scrub on the driftwood would be great, my BN seems to have a field day picking it apart

Hi,
Yes, the BNs love to gnaw on driftwood and that can cause
problems for some folks as just when the wood stops leaching
tannins into the water, the BN gnaws off the weathered
surface down to the fresh wood, and more tannins are
released - a minor "problem" but you have healthy BNs.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

I originally was not very happy with the cleanness of the water return from my HOB but with of experimenting it is working far better than ever.
I made a prefilter from a filter sponge I cut a slit in the sponge and pushed the inlet tube right down but not to the bottom. I also put a small sponge on top of the wool because of the HOB design the filter wool would float up above the water return level. The design of the filter wool container has two little finger grips this keeps the wool in place plus extra filtration material.

I will take a few photos and post it in TT as soon as I can.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info
Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW