crap looks like a mini-cycle

is going on in my 20gal. Shortly after writing that last post I had time to test the water- it was 0.25 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, 30 Nitrate. I did a 40% water change. The fishes and snails still look fine, still no sign of Sammy.

Maybe he died and caused an ammonia spike. Or something else happened and hurt my biofilter. The tank doesn't smell right. It doesn't have that nice, musty odor. Smells sterile. A little better after this wc. Did I accidentally forget to treat a 2 gallon bucket of refill water? or what else could have happened...

If it doesn't look like this tank will stabilize soon, I might move the fishes over to the new tank sooner than planned... but they'd be okay there because see the next post!