How to keep ammonia and nitrite down in a fry tank?

[Guppygirl]

Fish breeders, please help. How do you keep the ammonia and nitrite from spiking in the adult and fry grow out tank if one is feeding 3-4 times a day?????? My fry are in a net breeder at the moment in the adult tank due to the small hatch size. Do you do daily, bi-daily, weekly, bi-weekly water changes???? or do you use chemicals.(A last option for me, don't really like them). The tank smells fishy, compared to my other tanks that smell like dirt. Ammonia was like 2, nitrite was .25. PH was yellow-yikes when I tested the water. Normal PH is 7.2-7.4(blue). So it is acidic. Would this ammonia and nitrite spike have anything to do with PH???? Any help would be greatly appriciated. My fish don't seem to care they are still breeding up a storm, but numbers above 0 when testing scare me. :shock:

[Vallisneria]

I feed 4-5 times a day in my fry tanks(usually a 10g) and I've never had water quality issues. I do a 1/3 water change every 2-3 days. I sometimes add a few plants like java moss to help keep the water cleaner.

what size tank do you have them in?How many other fish are with them? What type of fish are these?

All I can say is if you are having water quality problems you either need to cut down the feedings a bit or do more water changes.

[jvision]

If you have any ivy/pothos around the house, take a cutting, rinse the roots and place it in the tank (just the roots w. the plant out of the water). I do at least 50% WCs per week, too - try to do ever 3 days or so.