Water Issue/ fish issue

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
Reading the wiki that does sound it and makes sence. I have city water and it was tested to not be overly hard. When I change water I would usually vaccume out gravel every other time. Recently I have not while trying to get the bio filter back working.
Any ideas how to get rid of it or atleast contain it? I currently do not have a under gravel filter, would it be worth adding?
 
pockets said:
Reading the wiki that does sound it and makes sence. I have city water and it was tested to not be overly hard. When I change water I would usually vaccume out gravel every other time. Recently I have not while trying to get the bio filter back working.
Any ideas how to get rid of it or atleast contain it? I currently do not have a under gravel filter, would it be worth adding?
Click to expand...

It doesn't have to come from the water source, I just happened to have it and have looked into ways of removing it(aeration being one)...

It can be produced in anaerobic areas of the substrate. You said your tank has been up for 4 years. Perhaps you have missed an area with the vacuum(under an ornament or something)?

I am just curious as the the rotten egg smell. Unless you have rotten eggs near the tank, I can't think of what else would cause that smell. You said the PH drop coincides with an increase in smell as well. Unfortunately I can't find the exact paper I read at moment, but in rough terms it said when the PH dropped below a certain point(below 6?), that hydrogen sulfide gas is released from the water(more rapidly??). I wish I could find that paper, but I haven't been able to locate it. It was a peer reviewed article, so they are normally accurate factually. My memory of it may be a bit off however.

To put it simply, if it was in the water and the PH suddenly dropped, you would get the rotten egg smell.

Is the tank planted?

As far as fish health goes, I doubt that is the reason, but it can happen:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/hydrogen-sulfide-the-answer-you-asked-for-147656.html
 
Last edited:
It's not planted and it is possible something was missed as some point in cleaning.
What are your thoughts on the undergravel?

And the smell has not come back since my every other day water changes

The fish health I believe is just do to the stress of the poor water condition on them.
 
I've never used a uv filter, but I would prob turn it off, since it kills bacteria ( if I've heard right) it might hinder your mini cycle. I really would stay clear of chemicals. Getting seeded material from another tank would really help. Think of it this way.... Your LFS makes money for every chemical you buy... Sell you one that will make another aspect go out if whack... And so on.... I've not had to cycle any of my upgrades or if I have to set up a quick tank for a rescue. Upgrades I use all the substrate and the seeded filters system. Patience.... Hope it works out.
 
The uv filter is supposed to kill off the bad bacteria doesn't mean it doesn't hinder the good so I think ill disconnect it.

I dont really have any place to get a seeded bio sponge from I can see if my moms is the same but Idk if it is.

I understand the skeptism towards PRE but this one has been in business for everynight of 30 years, I've been getting fish and supplies from then since I was a young lad and really don't think they r trying to just make a buck off me.

I'm doing water changes every other day. I got home ph was below 6 again, changed 15 gallons and it was at like 6.2-6.4 I'm going to check it when I get home about 4-5 hours later I bet its below 6 again.. I'm running out of ideas and am getting sick of watching the fish suffer.. although last night today they were more active and did eat when I put a little food in..
 
so i feel my tank has stabilized, last water change i did was sunday, and PH has been holding 7-7.2 since friday. Water is clearing up and looking great, Ammonia is around 1ppm, and fish are becoming much more active, eating great, their eyes are clearing up, and color is comming back. And i didnt loose any of them (knock on wood)
 
well ive been changing 15 gallons every other day and not adding anything to it. i would like it lower but the ammonia level will not drop. has been the same pm and ammonia level since friday.

i dont knbow how true they are but i looked at a chart and for the PH and temp it said for ammonia to be be aprx 1-1.2

what other ways are there to drop the ammonia level???
 
You just need to do water changes. If your ammonia is 1.0 and you change 50% of the water, your ammonia should be .50 ppm. You can do bigger water changes back to back to get the ammonia down.

It sounds like you are using strips to test with. Everyone here will tell you that using the API Master Freshwater test kit is the most accurate. I have not used strips but people say they are very inaccurate.
 
im not using strips, i dont know the name but its a complete test kit, it uses a powder then drops to test the ammonia.

i dont want to change to much water at one time at this point as its finally clearing and dont want all the good bacteria thats starting to grow to dissapear again...
 
pockets said:
i dont want to change to much water at one time at this point as its finally clearing and dont want all the good bacteria thats starting to grow to dissapear again...
Click to expand...
You good bacteria lives your filter with some on your decorations and substrate...very little in your water column so changing the water will not effect your bacteria but have a big beneficial effect on your fish.
 
ok, ill change more water then when i do the water change tonight and see if that helps.

should it be a reletivly quick change in a amonia after i change the water?
 
I change 25-50% for PWC. The beneficial bacteria is in ur substrate and in your filtration system. When up grading or setting up a quick quarantine for a rescue I simply use a filter from one of my established tanks and substrate and fill. I always have a filter on a tank for this purpose.
 
I think the ratio is .... lets say you have a .50 amonia if you do a 50% PWC then you would have roughly a .25 amonia.
 
ok ill do a 50% tonight or tomorrow and see what i can get out of it.

im going to have the LFS test my water again to see how its doing.


and just because i feel like a retard after this, how often should i suck out my gravel and do a complete cleaning once im back up and stable??
 
As long as your pH is low (below 7), the ammonia is non toxic (ammonium) and of no concern. however, at low pH, the bio filtration is severely curtailed, so the filter won't show a reduction in ammonia, but that isn't a concern as the ammonia is non toxic. What would be a concern is if you were to raise the pH above 7 (baking soda would do this as well as act as a buffer) you would suddenly have a toxic situation as the ammonium was turned into toxic ammonia, and if the nitrifying bacteria was reduced by the low pH, it would not be able to quickly consume the ammonia, and you could have fish deaths.
Gravel cleaning should be done every water change. Clean as much as you can while getting the water down to whatever level you are going for with regard to the size of the water change.
 
sweet, thank you all for your help and advise durring my issue.. hopefully i wont have anymore any time soon.. to stressful for me...

so with my ph at 7-7.2 and ammonia of 1ppm and a temp of like 84f is that toxic??
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

J
Nitrates up, pH and total alkalinity down
Replies
13
Views
442
Airborne 82nd
A
A
FX6 Pump Issue
Replies
3
Views
2K
Colin_T
C
A
Thoughts on Apistos with Golden White Clouds?
Replies
3
Views
453
Andy Sager
Andy Sager
B
Too much Potassium??
Replies
1
Views
115
dcutl002
dcutl002
J
What causes illness if water conditions are fine?
Replies
4
Views
430
Andy Sager
Andy Sager

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom