What does it mean when....?

[NewFishGuy]

Okay...my 10 gal FW has been going through another cycle 6 months after finishing the original cycle. My ammonia has dropped and my Nitrites are now at 0 ppm. 2 things concern me though....

1. My ammonia never went all the way back down to 0. It spike VERY high for a VERY long time, but it has now dropped down to 2.0 ppm. Why wont it go to 0ppm also???

2. My pH has dropped to 6.0 I assume this is too low for my fish.....

Could these 2 problems be connected? Cant the low pH be causing the high ammonia....or vice-versa? Is it safe to use a pH product on my tank to raise the pH?

Current parameters...

Ammonia - 2.0 ppm
pH - 6.0
Nitrite - 0.0 ppm
Nitrate 25-30 ppm

 

[fisch]

I would not raise the pH for now because ammonia becomes more toxic at higher pH's. It seems strange that the ammonia would not go below 2.0. Have you tested this value at your LFS or with another test kit. If your ammonia is truly 2.0 there is likely some decaying food in the tank that is also contributing to the low pH. BTW, what is the pH out of the tap so we can tell how much it has dropped.

 

[mattrox]

Do regulr pwcs. If your pH dropps too much it will hinder the cycle by slowing, stopping bacteria growth or even killing the bacteria already there.

Do a 30 % pwc 3 days in a row, then back to your regular routine. If you suspect gunk, do a gravel vac too.

 

[Guest]

wow i feel bad for you seems like your tank isnt happy that really sucks

 

[Jchillin]

Using additives to lower ph is not a good thing. What is interesting is that you have both NH3 and NO3.

There is something causing your ammonia to be present while NO2 remains at 0 and your ph lowered.

Have you added anything to the tank during this cycle other than the present fish?

 

[mattrox]

Sorry to re-hash, this has been bugging me a bit.......

My hunch is that the bioload is too high for the bacteria, and you have the max. bacteria possible for your filter set up.

Perhaps things have built up in the gravel like fisch has said?

PWC's as said above will assist if this is the case. Try it and se if it helps.

 

[TomK2]

Could these 2 problems be connected? Cant the low pH be causing the high ammonia.

I beleive the two problems are one and the same. I have read that ammonia nitrification stops at a pH of 6, so the ammonia would not be converted. Yes, it is less toxic at a lower pH, but it might not go away either. Regular PWC's to gradually raise the pH up a bit would likely help.

 

[NewFishGuy]

I do 15-20% pec every day of the week right now....have been since the cycle started again about 2 months ago. The bio load is the same as it has been since the tank was established last October after the cycle ended....this has all come about in the past 2 months....only change has been loosing a large Gourami 1 month ago due to constipation and getting a Tiny Opaline Gourami to replace the lost one. So if anything, the bio load is lower now than is was for the 4 months that the tank parameters were perfect....

That's what isn't making sense to me....The cycle finished I added fish...everything was perfect...I lost one fish that started to decay in the tank....that set off another cycle due to my excessive cleaning and vaccuuming getting rid of "good guy" bacteria. The second cycle lasted almost 2 months but has ended now (nitrites have dropped back to 0)...but the ammonia just won't go away.....I'm about to just stop feeding for a week and see if that helpd. The fish only get fed 1 time every day- 2 days. I only feed them what they eat in 2-3 minutes...then I drop in a small pinch of sinking pellets for the cory cats......could it be that I am over feeding even though I seem to be following the "norm" for feeding the right amounts?

 

[fisch]

Do you get a lot of gunk when you gravel vac? You should still gravel vac, just not the whole tank at once.
What is your tap water pH so we can see how much it has dropped?
Have you checked your ammonia with another test kit of at your LFS?

 

[SteveM]

Sounds like pH Crash :

http://www.koivet.com/html/articles...article_id=206&category=12&name=Water+Quality

That article is oriented toward Koi and ponds, but the water chemistry is the same.

What kind of water do you use for water changes? If you're using purified water you need to be adding in something to bring up the hardness and alkalinity, or else the pH will drop down like you are seeing.

If you need to raise the pH, baking soda will raise the pH and alkalinity pretty safely. Careful raising it with ammonia present though - as people have said ammonia is more toxic at higher pH.