are these levels bad/how do I change them?

[nikismithwin]

10 gallon w/ 2 male guppies, 2 female guppies, & 2 1mo. old fry
Had 2 more female who recently passed 1 giving birth, the other maybe stress? Not sure, only had it a day and a half...

I saw what looks like a spot on the babies fin so I slowly cranked the heat to 87 over the past 2 days. I vacuumed the gravel Friday and took out about 8 quarts of water. Monday I did a 4 quart WC. Today I tested the water with an api master kit and my readings are: N3- 5 No2- 0 amm. .25 pH 6 So I know ammonia is bad, and shouldn't my pH be higher? How do I fix it? Do you think I'm not moving enough gravel around when I vacuum or maybe I should do bigger wc's?

 

[BBradbury]

Your TankHelloH

Hello nik...

You have a very small tank. Keeping the water healthy in it is difficult at best. My guess is the wastes in the water are poisoning the fish. Save the small tanks for when you've gotten more experience keeping the water pure. Your chances for success in the hobby will be better with a much larger tank, say 30 gallons.

In the mean time, remove and replace half the tank water a couple of times per week.

B

 

[nikismithwin]

Won't changing that much that often stress the fish? It's my sons tank. He got it as a b-day gift from his grandparents last August. I feel like I have to make it work or risk disappointing him and my mother in law :-\

 

[Sk3lly]

No large water changes are good as suggested. Just make sure the water is the same temperature as the tank water and of course dechlorinated

 

[treemanone2003]

You should always test your water PRIOR to WC's. ph fluctuations are the biggest killer. If your tank is normally (for example only) 7.0 and your tap is 7.8, but aged is 7.3, aged water is best.

 

[trennamw]

While I agree it's easier to keep a big tank, it's not impossible to keep a small tank.

Now, I'm kinda new here, but I've learned a lot over the past 6 months about keeping small tanks. I had a ton of trouble but now have a 3 gallon that's been very stable for awhile.

I struggled a ton trying to get ammonia levels to 0 and pH to 7 and then some good resources explained consistent pH is more important than perfect pH, and ammonia can be ok at .5 in certain pH and temperature conditions.

I apologize I don't have the link, but a good article on ammonia was forwarded to me ... You could find it by going to my thread about fishless cycling and I think the second page has a series of posts from Threnjen. One has a link to a chart where you can see that at a mid to low pH, and a temp in the mid to high 70s, ammonia under 1.0 is not the emergency we've been taught to believe it is.

Water changes stress a fish but it's necessary stress. Using Stress Coat as my dechlorinator has helped me most with a small tank and frequent changes, it has stuff to help the slime coat.

The killer might be osmotic stress, which isn't a widely discussed issue but is important and is hard to measure. An article I read had a study suggesting what we think is pH shock is likely more often osmotic shock. The two are related but different. Very very basically, if the fish is in water at the store that has very little stuff in it and your tank has a lot (minerals, chemicals, etc) that change can be hard. If you haven't been doing water changes and just topping off your tank water might have a ton of minerals or whatnot in it. Kind of like what humans experience with changes in barometric pressure at different altitudes - even extreme enough to kill us.

In a position such as you're in I was told to do several 10% water changes over a few days to bring the pH up, then find out what your GH and KH are. Use Stress Coat or Prime in the water changes. Then do 50% once a week unless water tests show differently. There's a sweet spot I think for each tank and each type of tap water that you will find. Stability is everything. If your GH and KH in the tank are way different from your tap water, that's instructive too.

I wouldn't replace the guppy without a full understanding of water quality, and where their babies will go. But you can succeed with a 10 gallon.

 

[nikismithwin]

I vacuumed half the gravel today and did a 50% WC. Prior to changing it I tested the ammonia in the tank and out of my tap and the colors matched, no ammonia. So either the good bacteria worked overtime last night or I misread the test yesterday. The pH was still low though. Could that be because I turned up the heat maybe? Out oh the tap pH is 7.6, I have a glass of it on the counter to test tomorrow.

I really appreciate everyone's help, thank you.

 

[trennamw]

Our LFS told me pH at 6 is fine if it's consistent. The thing you are facing is that with tap water much higher, every water change could bring a huge pH swing. Tanks get acidic over time, especially if KH is low.

If the tank water and tap water are still quite far apart, try doing several 10-15% water changes to bring the pH up slowly. Or remove 50% again and add the new water slowly over a few hours similar to drip acclimation.