Test Kit Questions

[Sullyguy]

I bought a test kit for Ammonia Nitrate and PH.

I have 2 Lg Angel fish in a 20 galon tank. My Temperature is about 80. \
Ph is 5.0
Nitrate is 50
Ammonia is 2.4

My fish have started Ich or fin rot. What should I do about these readings? Are they good? Or should I lower something?

 

[xray]

Welcome to AA
You need to do a pwc. That much amonia is toxic to your fish. 8O

 

[Sullyguy]

what should my readings be?? I redid the ph and it is 6 not 5. And my tap Water is between 7 and 7.5.

 

[TomK2]

Wow, thats fairly acidic water. Like xray says, do multiple partial water changes over the next few days. Both to lower the ammonia and the nitrate. Might also bring your pH up a bit too. I have read that some strains of nitrifying bacteria stop working at a pH of 6, so this might explain your ammonia rise? That is assuming that the tank has been up for a while and otherwise was cycled and stable. How about more info, like how long it has been running, how often you do maintenance (like water changes), what kind of filtration you use and how you maintain it?

 

[TomK2]

Oh - and welcome to AA!

BTW - many people will try to keep the nitrate under 40 (I keep my tank under 5, but I have an advantage), and ammonia under 0.25ppm (undetectable). You might also want to get a nitrite test kit. Don't fixate on the pH value so much, pH stability is more important. Tap water pH will usually be lower if you let it stand overnight, so you might want to do that and see what your tap pH is after letting it stand. But I am a little worried about a pH less than 6.5 if what I have read about nitrifying bacteria is true.

 

[Sullyguy]

I still have lots of excess floating around. It's rotten food. Is there a way to get rid of it?? It only gets stuck in my filter tube. It needs to be broken down into smaller pieces

 

[TomK2]

It seems like there are a lot of factors with your tank. You have been using medications, overfeeding, not vacuuming your gravel? And now yu have high ammonia and low pH. The low pH can hurt your biofilter, but then again, maybe your biofilter was hurt by previous treatments, and that is why your ammonia is up and your pH down? An you have old food floating around in your tank.

I think you should start doing gravel vacuums daily. Vacuum the gravel until at least 20% of the water is removed, maybe even more. you may need to unclog the mechanical filter media in your filter too. But don't throw out all your biologic substrate, you need the bacteria on it. Keep doing gravel vacuums and water changes daily until you dont get much gunk up from the gravel, and till you see your tests improve. And skip feeding the fish every couple of days, and when you do feed only enough so that it is all consumed in about 2 minuts with none getting down into the gravel. Its a lot of work, but once your tank is happy and stable it will have been worth it!

 

[Sullyguy]

i vacuumed until I had 50%. Its looking better then it did. Ill vacuum it again on the weekend. I hope my tank gets better. I want to keep my 2 Angel Fish alive for my new house. I'm moving in August and they would look nice in my living room. Is it safe to put medecine in or should I wait a few days. They have a bit of fungus on their side fin.

 

[TomK2]

Only problem with medicating and doing lots of water changes is that you dilute out the medicines at the same time you are diluting out the toxins. So you will go through a lot of medicine. But poor water paremetes make your fish suseptible to disease, so you can't stop the water changes. And I don't know enough about how the medicine effects your bio-filter. Right now, diluting out the nitrogenous toxins would seem to be your highest priority.

 

[Sullyguy]

Is it too early to take new readings or wait til tomorrow nite?

 

[mattrox]

You can take new readings after a PWC.

I suspect you had a pH crash. This can be fixed by doing water changes like TomK said. With big fish in a 20 gal I'd be doing 2 or 3 20-30% PWC's a week after things stabilize(this includes vacuuming the gravel). I know that this sounds a lot but Angels love clean water. You would really notice the difference in their behaviour.

With doing many large water changes you need to know the pH of your tap water and the (normal) pH of your tank water. If there is a difference allowing the water being used for your PWC's to equilibrate with the atmosphere will help. This is usually done by agitating the water overnight in a container. For small amounts of water a bucket and airstone work. This allows the CO2 levels in the water and air to become equal and CO2 does affect water pH.

But for now, treat the fish with the required medication, keep up the water changes and re-dose the meds after each change. Make sure there is no carbon in the filtration system when medicating though.

 

[Sullyguy]

my ph is now 7.0
my amonia is now .01
my nitrate is still at 50

So I think it is stable now?? It still looks like they have fungus on the tip of their side fins. I am treating it with Mardel Maroxy liquid. Any other suggestions?? I heard the tablets are more effective.