Whats up with my water?

[Heiko]

Its me again,

Hey my 20g tank as you all know is vastly overstocked (problem should be sorted shortly). But i have just done a water change and my readings seem to be funny.

Nitrate = 25mg/l
Nitrite = 0.00mg/l
Amonia = 0.00 mg/l
pH = aprox 5-6

My pH was running @ an aproximate 7 before and i have just tested it twice and i came up with a high 5 - 6 reading. This is why im posting because even i thin somethings wrong. I will test again tommorow see if anything has happened. If not can anyone tell me how to higher it?

 

[greenmaji]

what is in the tank..?
try frequent small pwc's to even things out ph wise..

 

[Heiko]

what is in the tank..?

2 many fish! i know im overstocked with:

2 Angels
6 Barbs
4 leapord Danoi
1 red finned shark
2 swordtails

I am working to sorting out the number of fish so please no1 post telling me i have 2 many fish. Hey im just a novice and i change the water every 3 days to keep the guys happy and they seem good. :?

 

[Heiko]

Will try the water changes maggi thanks

 

[greenmaji]

by the way .. try to up the %'s with your water changes until you can get that nitrate down below 20 ppm... JMO though.. ok.. and its good you know that there is a problem.. hope you can get the extra fish good homes!!!

 

[AquaJoe]

Heiko I agree with your saying you have too many fish for the aquarium but I really don't think it's THAT over stocked -so to speak. In other words, I don't think your issue is related to the amount of fish you have. At all. I mean come on, you do a PWC every three days for god sake

With that said, my advice is to keep up with the PWC and monitor the Ph. You should see a difference within a week or two. If not you may have to resort to ph up/down.... I know that ash helps to neutralize Ph in soil and other organic applications however I don't think it would be suitable for use in a FW aquarium simply because it would make the water real ugly and probably cause some filter problems.... Don't quote me on this but the last time I was in WalMart (the only place around here I can buy fish supplies) I saw these tablets which you drop into your filter (so many tabs per x amount of gallons I presume) and it is supposed to neutralize the water.

HTH my friend. Keep us posted.

Joe

 

[Guest]

From everything I've read, a stable ph is the most important thing, so don't worry about it as long as its not changing a lot. Anyway, I would check your test kit again, a pH of 5 is really low, thats like so acidic you could taste it in the water.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

. If not you may have to resort to ph up/down

Do not use these chemicals. They only cause major pH swings, which in turn harm fish. It's better to find the root of the problem, instead of just trying to mask it with chemicals. It is better to naturally increase/decrease pH slowly, with crushed coral or limestone (to increase) and peat or driftwood (to decrease).

Like Tony said, its better to have a stable pH than the perfect pH. Unless of course you are looking at some african Cichlids that need it in the upper 8's and 9's, but that's not the case. OR, if your pH is naturally 9.0 but are trying to keep South American Cichlids.

I agree that the pH reading seems unusual. The Nitrate's aren't bad, in fact, with the bio-load that you have, it looks normal. As long as it's below 30, you're in good shape. I would question the test kit that you are using. Are you using strips or a Master Test Kit?

 

[AquaJoe]

Just for the record I would not use ph up/down unless it was a LAST RESORT.

Joe

 

[Heiko]

Im using a master test kit with small bottles of fluids. Its just the pH that seems wierd i mean it was fine 3 days ago @ around high 6's - 7. It just seems a really sudden drop. Im off 2 test it again so i will keep you posted.

 

[greenmaji]

check the date on your test kit and make sure you get everything nice and clean.. vac gravel, clean filters and such.. test your KH if its under 3 that could be the problem...

 

[Heiko]

How do i tets KH? I dont seem to have a test in my kit for that. Hmmmm :?

 

[greenmaji]

its called carbonate hardness or water hardness in the kits.. it should give you a number in ppm and instructions how to translate that number into dKH or KH.

 

[greenmaji]

in the most common water hardness test kit you will have 3 bottles the last turns the water from red to blue.. you want it to take at least 6 drops of the final bottle to turn the water blue and stay blue for more than a min. or so. if it takes less than that your KH is less than 3 and you need to test your tap to see if its too soft as well.. if your tap water isnt too soft but your aquarium water is then you need to look into why that happened..

 

[Heiko]

I dont have a KH test kit but ill look out for one next time im at my LFS. Just tested water again with same results. My test kit is not to old I only got it for christmas and it seemed to be working great. Everything else seems gd its just the pH. I tested the tap waters pH and it was around 7 according to the kit so im not sure whats up............

The other thing is if my water was that acidic would it not be noticible in the fishes behaviour etc. Becasuse my fish seem as happy as ever. Even more so with there very frequent pwc's.

Im confused.

 

[greenmaji]

the fact that they are happier with the very frequent pwc's is good news!
and it does sound like your water is too soft to keep your PH stable.. you will need a test kit before you try to change the water chemistry though..

 

[Heiko]

ok thanks,

i know from chemistry that the tap water on the island where i live is very soft. There is another test you can do to test this asswell. You take a small sample of your water in a test tube and add soap. The soap will lather if the water is soft but if it is hard a scum material will form. You can roughly work out the hardness from this i think.

BTW mine lathers alot so it seems ur right maggi.

Im deffinatly going to try and get a test kit tho. Much more accurate.