ammonia spike ?

[tropicalfishlady]

Just glad it's all going good. And remember you will eventually have to use new CC but it shouldn't be for some time. You ph will let you know when it's time.

Hi Rivercats,tanks all good,thanks for all your help,got ph around 6.8 now all stable,ammonia settled great.
Today i went and got my Crowntail Betta he is beautiful,ill post pics when he settles in ive called him Merlin

 

[Rivercats]

Well I'm glad you finally got everything stable and you got your betta! Can't wait to see pic's!

 

[tropicalfishlady]

Well I'm glad you finally got everything stable and you got your betta! Can't wait to see pic's!

Thanks hun,really greatful for your help on the ph so many many thanks and ill post pics he has purple on him looks gorgeous,there was a blue n red mix one but i was drawn to Merlin cos he is different pics soon i promise x

 

[tropicalfishlady]

Well I'm glad you finally got everything stable and you got your betta! Can't wait to see pic's!

I managed to get a pic of Merlin,just 1 at mo cos he is busy exploring tank,he has settled in ok he has flared a few times to.my cory and Malaysian Trumpet Snail lol but otherwise he is ok with them so far anyway : here he is

 

[Rivercats]

Pretty boy and he is lavander! Don't see that too often.

 

[tropicalfishlady]

Pretty boy and he is lavander! Don't see that too often.

Thank you,my LFS had 2 left and the other was blue n red,but Merlin i was drawn too,ive looked at a few pics and videos and never seen his colour so im really pleased with him,the red n blue one was lovely as blue is my fav colour,but i love purple too,his body when ctch the light is like a turquoise ill take more pics soon,its hard to ctch as he is busy exploring lol

 

[tropicalfishlady]

Pretty boy and he is lavander! Don't see that too often.

Some more pics of Merlin
He has flared a bit at my cory but otherwise he is ok with him,so was seeing if he was ok thn i was thinking of getting a few cory habrosus,so my julii has some cory family around him,but someone said tht i should take Betta out,i have nowhere else tp put him,then get little cories,but ive had some say see how he goes with cory then u can get a few more,tht person who said to take him out because he may think they are intruding on his territory :-/
What do you think hun,im bit confused,my LFS guy said thy are usually ok with cories,and he is a good fish guy,i trust what he says thx if ya can help hun.....pics:

 

[Rivercats]

Usually bettas ignore cory's. But there always are exceptions to the rule. Just watch him and see if it's just the newness of having tank mates. My guess is he will stop but if not you may need to move the cories.

 

[tropicalfishlady]

Usually bettas ignore cory's. But there always are exceptions to the rule. Just watch him and see if it's just the newness of having tank mates. My guess is he will stop but if not you may need to move the cories.

Ive only got the one at mo he was already in tank when i got Merlin,ive been told like depends on Bettas temperament and im not going to get the little cory habrosus until he has settled in and i did wnt to monitor him with my one.cory i had left over from other fish thanks hun tc

 

[tropicalfishlady]

Usually bettas ignore cory's. But there always are exceptions to the rule. Just watch him and see if it's just the newness of having tank mates. My guess is he will stop but if not you may need to move the cories.

Hi Rivercats,Merlin seems to be settling down with my cory,although he stills flares a bit now and then but then he just swims off after,you know when I asked you about PH being 6 most of time + I got some CC and added and took out until I got to around 6.8 and after a w/c it goes bk to 6 and you said it will have to buffer again,im.still a little confused because I do a weekly.w/c around 25% and everytime ph goes bk to 6,but ive noticed now that its taking a while to rebuffer,last time nearly up to a week then its time for another w/c so im thinking evrytime I do a weekly change im still going to be in constant 6 :-/,one time at a w/c it buffered in 3 days right up to 7.6 so.still v.erratic,last week I didnt do one as it was still 6 when nxt one was due so u left it and its just on 6.6 and have not done a w/c yet so its took week and 3 days to buffer to only 6.6 and I added more coral,so basically I still can not get it to stable im puzzled as at 1st I managed ok and it buffered to 6.8 but had to.take some coral iut because it went to 7.6 it would be good if as you say after wc it was 6 then after a couple of days go to 6.8 up to 7 then wc back to 6 then pattern repeated but last 2 weeks its not rebuffered much at all sorry for babbling on a bit but its still rather puzzling thanks for all the help you give me xx

 

[Rivercats]

Remember I told you to add 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda after water changes. Are you still doing that? That will help the CC not to have to try to play catch up after a WC. Also if you find your ph drops you can always add alittle (1/8 or 1/16th) teaspoon of baking soda to help your ph. OR there is a product called Seachems Equalibrium which is normally added to RO water to add buffers and chemicals back in. If you have it available in the UK you might want to consider using it with water changes instead of baking soda. Its just an option.

 

[tropicalfishlady]

Remember I told you to add 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda after water changes. Are you still doing that? That will help the CC not to have to try to play catch up after a WC. Also if you find your ph drops you can always add alittle (1/8 or 1/16th) teaspoon of baking soda to help your ph. OR there is a product called Seachems Equalibrium which is normally added to RO water to add buffers and chemicals back in. If you have it available in the UK you might want to consider using it with water changes instead of baking soda. Its just an option.

Oh thanks hun I can't remember you saying that about baking soda ive read about that before though so thanks,no hadn't been doin that cheers sorry for all the questions x

 

[tropicalfishlady]

Oh thanks hun I can't remember you saying that about baking soda ive read about that before though so thanks,no hadn't been doin that cheers sorry for all the questions x

Hi.hun so sorry its me again and this Ph trouble is driving me mad :-/
Ive been adding the baking soda like you said with CC at water change,as you know my problem is acidic water yellow most of time,it went up a little to 6.4 after last 2 water change,nearly a week up soon nxt wc and its back to 6 yellow and ive added 2 lots of Baking soda this week my water has gone awful loads of small white bits floating around in it,1st time thats happened my water is normally sparkling,i have pads in filter 2 of them that normally deals with fine particles,i did have to.do a filter clean as u do every so often and water normally clears up great !!!
So whether its to do with CC or baking soda,yes I dissolved in it wa water,sorry to be a nuisance with this topic and im grateful of all the help u have giving me so far but im so puzzled by it and as to why I cannot get my PH up,my cory and crowntail are fine but I worry about nitrification dropping with a ph that yellow plus want it stable for fish.
If you could help thanks once again

 

[Rivercats]

I've never seen this to be such a problem before! Do you have a Gh and Kh test kit, I can't remember. If you do what are your readings? I'm to a point I'm not sure what to tell you other than to add even more CC to the tank. The only good thing is with such a low ph ammonia isn't harmful to the fish.

 

[tropicalfishlady]

I've never seen this to be such a problem before! Do you have a Gh and Kh test kit, I can't remember. If you do what are your readings? I'm to a point I'm not sure what to tell you other than to add even more CC to the tank. The only good thing is with such a low ph ammonia isn't harmful to the fish.

Ive only got a API master test kit whats a GH and KH test kit do ?
I know ammonia isnt harmful,thats settled down as I did av a bit of a spike in beginning,with the CC it went v.neutral as it was add some take some out lol,then I got it exact 6.6/6.8 but it was after wc it was taking too long to buffer back to 6.6/6.8 so I started the Baking soda and it was 6.4 a day after wc and nxt day so added a bit more baking soda get it up a bit and today 6 !!!! Ive added some more CC and Bak soda and see what it is tomorrow it is a puzzling one,my tapwater is neutral as always thx for taking time to answer

 

[Rivercats]

Kh is carbonate hardness and tells basically how much calcium is in the water, which also tells how much buffer you have. A tank needs to have a Kh of at least 4 or you begin having ph flexuations (sound familiar). Gh is general hardness and basically is a reading of the combination of carbon and magnesium in a tank. A Gh reading of 4 is also needed for a planted tank as most plants need magnesium as it's a minor macro nutrient. I use the API test kit for Kh and Gh, the kit has two different tests in it, one for each reading.

 

[tropicalfishlady]

Kh is carbonate hardness and tells basically how much calcium is in the water, which also tells how much buffer you have. A tank needs to have a Kh of at least 4 or you begin having ph flexuations (sound familiar). Gh is general hardness and basically is a reading of the combination of carbon and magnesium in a tank. A Gh reading of 4 is also needed for a planted tank as most plants need magnesium as it's a minor macro nutrient. I use the API test kit for Kh and Gh, the kit has two different tests in it, one for each reading.

Ok hun thanks ive seen it mentioned before but never understood it,thos water lark can get complicated lol,what happens if I do test and its less than 4,ill see about getting the tests cheers

 

[Rivercats]

Lets cross that bridge when and if we get to it... lol!

 

[tropicalfishlady]

Lets cross that bridge when and if we get to it... lol!

Ok hun,i will get them tests thx

 

[tropicalfishlady]

Lets cross that bridge when and if we get to it... lol!

Hi Rivercats,got my Gh/Kh test kit today........
The Kh one im puzzled,it says numb of drops taken to go from blue to bright yellow,mine was never blue,it started as a very pale orange at 1 drop,i went right up to 12,which is as far as the chart goes and it just ended up with orange getting darker,certainly not yellow ?????
Gh is 7 drops to go from orange to green,went green on drop 7 so that was straight forward,7 on chart equals 125.3ppm