fresh water tank...water

[papi]

Does anyone have an opinion on using spring water in there fish tank? I have had my aquarium set up now for almost 5 years and just in the past couple of months my parameter have been bouncing all over the place. I do use our cities tap water.

 

[Brookster123]

Old tank syndrome? Heard of this before. You having ph crash and nitrate spikes?

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[papi]

i did have ph crash. my other parameters were normal at the time. then i added baking soda to raise the ph and the other parameters sky rocketed. i looked up old tank syndrome and it describes my tank perfectly, thankyou.

 

[CleverBs]

I use about 30% RO/DI water mixed with my tapwater for my tanks

 

[Brookster123]

i did have ph crash. my other parameters were normal at the time. then i added baking soda to raise the ph and the other parameters sky rocketed. i looked up old tank syndrome and it describes my tank perfectly, thankyou.

Try adding crushed coral or.limestone, should help buffer the water. Baking soda is a nono to me. Way to iffy, creates unstable parameters.

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[papi]

Water

CleverB,
I'm pretty new to this aquatic life ! What do you mean by...RO/DI?

 

[ImACoolguy]

CleverB,

I'm pretty new to this aquatic life ! What do you mean by...RO/DI?

Reverse osmosis/Distilled water. You can get RO/DI filters that hook right into your water line.


Caleb

 

[Andy Sager]

If your tank was set up for some time and you did not have any issues prior to this, your source water is not the issue here as the same thing will happen no matter what water you use. You do want to routinely monitor your water's parameters, especially nitrates, as the tank gets older to avoid this happening again. Routine weekly water changes go a long way to preventing Old Tank Syndrome ( that means cleaning some of the substrate with each change).

Having said all that, using spring water shouldn't be a problem if the spring is clean. If you are not having changes in your city tap water however, I wouldn't be in a hurry to change using it. Old tank syndrome comes from the inhabitants of the tank, not the water. You just see the end results in the water tests.

Hope this helps

 

[papi]

About 3-4 days ago I did a 50% water change. I am gonna have my water tested this weekend. If my parameters stay about the same would you just do another partial water change and use same water that I have been using and then, when do I test water again?

 

[Andy Sager]

About 3-4 days ago I did a 50% water change. I am gonna have my water tested this weekend. If my parameters stay about the same would you just do another partial water change and use same water that I have been using and then, when do I test water again?

It's great you did a water change a few days ago but when before that had you changed any water and how much? What is your tank maintenance routine?

The big key is to have a full panel readout of your tap water: PH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, GH and KH. Knowing this helps determine a proper routine for tank maintenance. For example, if your tap water has a higher nitrate level than your tank does, it is not a good idea to do massive water changes but more frequent smaller changes or setting up a holding facility ( tank or pail) and running some form of nitrate remover in the water before using it for water changes. Knowing the KH helps know if the water can even handle a stable PH or if it will constantly be falling due to lack of minerals. All these things come into play when trying to answer your question intelligently.
So once you supply these answers, then we can move forward.

Hope this helps.

 

[papi]

Water

Andy Sager,
Don't know go or kh. My ph however is about 8.0 my ammonia is about 2ppm my nitrites are about 2 ppm and my nitrates are about 40ppm. That was before 50% water change. The ph in city water runs a little high but not extreme. Don't know what it is.

 

[papi]

Should also let u know that one week prior to that all my numbers were about perfect except ph was higher....

 

[Andy Sager]

Andy Sager,
Don't know go or kh. My ph however is about 8.0 my ammonia is about 2ppm my nitrites are about 2 ppm and my nitrates are about 40ppm. That was before 50% water change. The ph in city water runs a little high but not extreme. Don't know what it is.

Somethings not right here. A 5 year old tank should not be showing ammonia or nitrites unless you are adding them just before testing or your fish were recently fed and pooing all over the place. The tank had to have cycled by now and have a reading of 0 ammonia & 0 nitrite and a nitrate reading of any amount. Since you are having your water tested this weekend, I wouldn't change anything until you get your test results. Bring in a sample of your tap water as well and ask the place to also test it for GH ( General hardness) & KH ( carbonate hardness) because this is important information for stability, as well as for the other tests.

You also didn;t mention when the last time before this last water change a change was done. This is also important information to know to better help you.

Lastly, I strongly suggest you invest in a good test kit for yourself so that you are not dependent on waiting for answers. Sometimes having to wait winds up killing the fish. API's Master freshwater kit is one of the better ones out there. ( Don't do the strips. They are not reliable.) All you would need after that is their GH/KH test kit ( unless new Master kits now come with those tests as well.)

 

[papi]

Water

Andy,
There was a week between water changes. I have been struggling with my water off and on for about 3-4 months. On a side bar I had 3 mystery snails that died due to there shell was deteriorating. ...don't know why? I'll do water change and check my parameters and let you know.

 

[brennae]

Shells deteriorate due to not enough calcium usually.

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[papi]

Snails

Brennae,
Will a low or high ph affect there shells and how do you add calcium to water?

 

[brennae]

Not sure about Ph but the crushed coral would help. You can use cuttlebone also liquid calcium can be used. That is located in the marine section of a fish shop. Also iodine and magnesium help the shells. I'm not a Ph expert or old tank syndrome expert so how these liquids would affect your tank issues I can't be sure.

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[Andy Sager]

Changing water blindly doesn't really help or solve your main issue. You don't know what caused it all. Based on the age of the tank, ( you said 5 years) that would be very old water if you hadn't been changing it regularly OR your water source is probably low in KH making it difficult for animals such as the snails to grow their shells. The problem is that in old water that started out with higher KH, once the calcium and minerals were used up, the water then has a low KH/GH. If your tap water is higher in KH, a simple water change can help solve this problem. If it is low, you should be adding a supplement to make up for it so changing water doesn't solve the issue. But if your tap water has a decent KH/GH, adding a supplement after a water change makes it too high and that's not good for the fish or snails either. So you need to know what your starting point is/was which is why not knowing what your tap water readings are is going to make this a more difficult thing to figure out. We all can shot gun answers to particular problems but the underlying problem may not get resolved. It's like driving a car blindfolded. You WILL get somewhere but not necessarily where you wanted to go because you had an accident because you couldn't see.
So, let's get back to the full story. What size is your tank? What is your normal tank maintenance routine and please be specific as to frequency of water changes, amount you change and how often you have the water tested. Then, hopefully, we can solve the whole issues at once.

 

[gilpi]

Filtration?


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[papi]

water

i have a 55 gallon aquarium. i have had it for about 5 years. originally everything was fake. i then went to natural substrate, not sure kind, i think fluorite, my best guess. water changes back then were poor. my filter broke about 1 year ago and didnt do anything about it. i did however after about 2 months get more serious and bout new filter. aqueon something or another, hangs over back of tank. i have about 20 community freshwater fish, including 2 angels, 2 balas, 1 redtail shark. i would prob. do water change 1/3 months or so. then one day, prob. 4 months ago, numbers didnt read right. so i started doing water changes. started with 50%, then later started doing smaller. my parameters would go from good to not so good to good to about 2 weeks ago which was good. normally i add prime when i do water change. last 2xs added nothing.did one 2/3 water change, water fine. checked again week later numbers skyrocketed then did 50% and now its been a week. dont know kh or gh...do not ever check. im really learning alot and anxious to learn more. i love this and think of it more than a hobby. sorry if i ramble this is how i talk. if i missed anything pleas let me know. i was keeping record of changes they got erased off my tablet.. just started back up again.