55g ph spike and ammonia

[daneek155]

i have a problem.. i came home today and my ph on my tank was at 7.6 and the ammonia at .25
last monday the ph was 7.0 and 0 ammonia.
i have 3 german blue rams
2 blue rams
1 dwarf gourami
i pleco
2 rainbow rams
2 angels.

its a 55g tank. i have a quad t5 ho fixture 216 watts. no co2 and planted med.

my rams do chase each other around a little but not all the time.there gills flange up and they butt heads.
i do have alot of algae??? i just put this new light in last sunday. i have it on for 9 hr and 4 hr at night of the blue led light.

i feed once a day a little pinch. and the nitrate is .10 nitrite 0
Any idea on what could make this happen.
tank is 4 months old. the fish act fine swimming around happy. any help will help thanks

 

[daneek155]

ok now my amonia looks like zero .. but ph is still at 7.6 when i checked it first that was after i put algeflex in

 

[aqua_chem]

With 4xT5HO over a non-CO2 tank, I would expect you to have a good bit of algae growing. You will have to constantly dosing to keep your problems at bay. I've also heard of Algaefix causing some fish and plants to die.

 

[daneek155]

well i just took one bulb out. thinking about using blackwater extract until i get a co2 set up. what you think about black water extract

 

[daneek155]

so i decided to go with black water extract to lower my ph. i put it in like 2 days ago. my ph went down to about 6.5 than went back up to 7.5 than it dropped again and now its at 7.5....... i didnt add any new fish any ideas

 

[daneek155]

would a ph of 7.4 be fine with my german blue rams????? i feel like im going to be stressing out the fish if i keep adding this blackwater extract