My poor fish?

[schoolmom]

Hi, I'm new here and I have seemed to have a BIG ammonia problem in my 55-gal freshwater tank for a long time. I'm weary trying to battle it. Here are the characteristics of my tank:

There are 14 fish in there ranging from as large as one pleco and one silver dollar to as small as a couple of cardinal tetras and a dwarf puffer. There's a panda cory, a melanistius catfish, and upside down catfish, a couple of head and tail light tetras, a few buenos aires tetras and one black neon tetra. The reason for one or two tetras in a group is that a few of them have died over the months/years and with the ammonia reading SO high, I haven't bought anyone else in for a long time.

Here's what happens. This tank typically has such a LOW pH reading (6.0 or lower?) and such HIGH ammonia readings (6.0 or 8.0?) that I do water changes way more often than average. Sometimes every day, sometimes every other day, sometimes every few. I rarely go more than just over a week without doing somewhere between a 12 to 25% water change, and somewhat recently I went ahead and did a 50% or so change out of exasperation. That seemed to help the most (lighter green color on both the test strip and in the API test tube) FOR ABOUT ONE OR TWO DAYS. Then back to that very dark blue-green API and dark green "danger" Quick Dip strip.

I use our hard tap water with a tiny bit of Prime added to each gallon, and even then the pH will slip down, down usually within a couple of days. I also typically add either StressCoat or NovAqua when I do a water change.

I have had a few fish die over the past two or three months, but I've had the tank a few years and have had some of these fish from the beginning. We used to have a lot of snails in there, but for awhile I had a couple of goldfish in here which my chinese water dragon was too afraid to eat. They grew big fast eating those snails, but I also wonder if something in the water killed off the rest of the snails. (This would have been about 10 months ago when I found another home for the goldfish.)

I seem to need to clean out the two Penguin BioWheel 200 filters every few weeks due to a grayish/brownish with a tinge of greenish sludge. It's possible that I have overfed these guys over the years now, but after all this time, I'm still afraid both that I'm overfeeding AND underfeeding since two of these guys are big. Nightly I put a pretty small pinch of Omega One flake, a couple of small kelp pellets, a pinch of freeze dried medley of shrimp and krill, a couple of bottom feeder tablets, broken up some, and a dozen or more tiny sinking super color pellets by Omega One. How does that sound? Oh, and usually put one sinking algae round in for the pleco.

Typically all the other readings are very good other than that darn ammonia reading and the pH that won't stay static.

Any help out there? I love these fish enough to really try to keep them alive and well, but I'd love to have a low-maintenance aquarium.

Thanks!

 

[Tad]

Hi

Probably ur ammonia is so high cause the ph too low :-/
I had similar problem :
API test showed pH 6 but I checked it with digital one and the result was 5.2 :-(

Ammonia going up when pH going down - but in pH lower than 7 the ammonia isn't toxic so keep changing water and check ur filter

I add shell into filter to rise pH up so after a week it's pH 6.8 and 0 ammonia
And as well KH from 1 up to 2 and GH from 4 up to 7

 

[melosu58]

Moving this to the FW general discussion. More people will see it there.

 

[ejaramillo01]

This is hard for me to understand, but I have some recommendations for you:

First try to get a liquid test from API, the strips are not really accurate, the liquid test are much reliable, and it's important to see the real ammonia level.

Second don't clean the filters unless they fall apart, all the gunky, greenish stuff is the good bacteria that will help you to remove the ammonia.

Why is the tank not cycled after all the years I don't know, maybe the fish that you have, the cats, and the silver are now full size and the bioload is to big now, maybe, I'm sure that more experienced people can give you better advice.

Also I think that the ammonia is bad and poison for the fish regarding the pH, so I don't think that the previous post about ammonia is not toxic at low ph is accurate. Keep doing water changes to reduce the ammonia, and even at 50% is better.

 

[mommytron]

first of all, don't be afraid to do too big of a water change. go ahead and do an 80% water change. this will help bring the ammonia down more. second, like the previous poster said, don't change out your filter cartridges/media unless they are falling apart (in which case you would seed a new cartridge properly before completly replacing the old one). if it gets clogged up with food and gunk, you can take it out during a PWC and swish it around in some old tank water (do NOT use straight tap water). go ahead and squish it, wring it, do whatever you need to do to clean the gunk off. the bacteria won't come dislodged this way so don't be afraid to really get it clean.

third, it sounds to me like you are over feeding your fish, which could be a factor in your high ammonia problems. fish can go much longer than you think with out food. and just think about how tiny their bellies are, they really don't need much. as long as everyone gets a little, you're good. if you notice a bunch of extra food floating around after feeding time, scoop as much as you can out with a net. decaying food can also contribute ammonia.

 

[dkpate]

I have heard before that the low pH makes the ammonia less/non toxic.

Also, I would get a bottle of Prime and use that, it helps with the ammonia and nitrites.

 

[bluerose]

I'd start with a liquid test kit like the API Master Freshwater kit, a very large water change, and halving your feeding routine at least. Do you vacuum your substrate/gravel when you do water changes? If so, do a light vac of about half your substrate (do the other half at the next water change).

The fish can go days, if not a week, without food without hardship - you won't starve them, and the ammonia levels in the tank are FAR more harmful.