fresh water community with plants

[Kitesurfjesus]

Resluts are as follows

Out of the tap
Ph 7.6
Amomina .25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

After adding conditioner to 5gallong bucket
Ph 7.6
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

Bamboo in the 55 looked kind of rotted like you said. Checked the ten gallon and the 29 gallon which also has bamboo in them and they were not the same as the the bamboo in the 55 gallon they looked healthy as can be unlike the bamboo in the 55 gallon. Upon doing the water change I was moving the rocks around and I picked one up and it was basicaly discenagrating in my hands. I removed all the rocks and put them in a seperate bucket with freshly treated tap water. I am going to test that water tomorrow and see where those levels are at. Could be the issue being that the rocks came out of the Colorado river. Aslo upon putting the new water in I do add special blend. Was told it is a good product to use when doing water changes. Any advice from here would be greatly appreciated. I will test the water again soon and post resluts. I'm pretty sure it needs time to cycle through the tank and filtration system before I can have accurate readings. I also noticed that I had set up my canister filter wrong. The water flows in through the foam pad and up through the baskets. I had my carbon on the bottom and my BB media on the top where it flows back to the tank I switched that around.

Oh and as I was writing all this I had left half a bucket of treated water on the floor and my 10 month old black lab/great dane monster was drinking out of it...is the treated water harmful to dogs???

 

[Kitesurfjesus]

I did remove the bamboo.
And also when doing the water changes I take out about 25 gallons at once and put 5 gallons of treated water in at a time so you know how I was doing the water changes.

 

[Kitesurfjesus]

Sorry and also I no longer have test strips. I have the api master test kit. Thats what I've been using for the water tests.

 

[Kitesurfjesus]

Results 1 hour after water change.

Ph 7.6
High range Ph 7.4
Ammonia .25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5.0

I will do a test at about 6am (florida time) before work and post results.

 

[ashleynicole]

The treated water should not hurt your dog, although I don't know about the special blend stuff you added, that might.

I wouldn't add any bacterial boosters. In most cases people have more problems than not. A lot of those types of additives are formulated so that you have to keep using it for it to work. In my experience it is better to let the bacteria establish naturally.

Although I have had excellent results using a seeded sponge I ordered from angels plus. I do not put any additives into my water except for prime. I do use fertilizers for my plants.

 

[ashleynicole]

That ammonia reading indicates that your ph crash may have killed off some beneficial bacteria and stalled your cycle.


Also you may want to consider removing the carbon from your filter and saving it in case you ever need to remove any medications. Activated carbon isn't really recommended if you have live plants.

 

[Kitesurfjesus]

7am results.
Ph 7.2
High range Ph 7.4
Amnonia .25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5.0

I think my rocks were the problem.
I will test that water that they are soaking In later this afternoon. But I think its safe to say its getting closer to being a stable tank

 

[Convict2161]

7am results.
Ph 7.2
High range Ph 7.4
Amnonia .25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5.0

I think my rocks were the problem.
I will test that water that they are soaking In later this afternoon. But I think its safe to say its getting closer to being a stable tank

Your getting too much of a pH fluctuation. I wouldn't say it's stable because of your swings in pH. Stability is key with pH. Your readings keep changing I'd look into seeing why that is. Do you have driftwood or anything that may be buffering your pH, your tap pH was neutral right? Then you had 6.6 now 7.2? And you really don't need both pH readings, it a little confusing. Testing high range pH isn't telling you anything IMO.

 

[Kitesurfjesus]

The rocks could of been causing my ph swing. No driftwood. Just plants minus the bamboo now.

 

[Kitesurfjesus]

I just added a neutral regulator for ph which adjust high or low ph to 7.0 made by seachem.

 

[Convict2161]

I just added a neutral regulator for ph which adjust high or low ph to 7.0 made by seachem.

Oh ok. And your tap was low? Sorry I forget... If your tap is low then yeah you may need it. Like my tap water is low, 6. Something I forget so I have to buffer my pH for my African cichlid tank.

 

[Kitesurfjesus]

I believe my tap water was neutral. The readings are in another post I put up lastnight.

 

[Kitesurfjesus]

Yeah 7.6 out of the tap on ph

 

[Convict2161]

Yeah 7.6 out of the tap on ph

That's not bad at all. Most fish will adapt to pH levels rather then swings. Also of it were me I'd try and use a little chemicals even buffers as possible. The ONLY reason I started using crushed coral in my tank is because the tap water for some reason dropped way way too low for my Africans. For the longest time I wasn't using anything. Here's what happened when I did a water change and didn't realize the tap pH had dropped so drastically.

http://youtu.be/cAGb4Fr9K20

Very Very scary to watch. I quickly tested water and found it to be yellow. I was at the same time posting here and with help of other members we pinpointed the issues when I tested the tap and saw it had dropped. I slowly raised the pH back to what it was before and lost no fish.

Just something to always be aware of.

 

[ashleynicole]

I just added a neutral regulator for ph which adjust high or low ph to 7.0 made by seachem.

Aaahhh, you really don't want add chemicals to adjust ph, this is going to cause more fluctuations and crashing.

You are dumping a lot of different chemicals in your tank without really thinking about why your adding them. I reccomend you stop adding any chemicals with exception to a water conditioner.

You have ammonia which indicates you are far from having a tank balanced. Ammonia should be steady at zero. Ammonia showing up at this point means a stalled cycle most likely due to the ph crash.

 

[Rivercats]

I agree with no using any ph adjusting chemicals.

In order to get a true ph reading from your tap water you have to put some tap water in a cup and either aerate it for 24 hours or stir it occassionally over a 24 hour time period to gas it off. Then do your ph test. This will give you the true ph of your tap water.

 

[Kitesurfjesus]

Woildnt I want to keep the ph stable? If it falls too much won't it cause the BB to die?? I haven't ran any tests been bed ridden with a massive hang over.

 

[Cactuspixie]

Woildnt I want to keep the ph stable? If it falls too much won't it cause the BB to die?? I haven't ran any tests been bed ridden with a massive hang over.

I'm following this, because I also thought that using seachem neutral regulator would keep the ph stable.

 

[Kitesurfjesus]

Ok here are more resluts. Just tested the tank
Ph 6.0!!! Not good
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0

Please explain why to not use the ph neutralizer cause if I was using it my ph would be higher than 6.0.

 

[ashleynicole]

Ok here are more resluts. Just tested the tank
Ph 6.0!!! Not good
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0

Please explain why to not use the ph neutralizer cause if I was using it my ph would be higher than 6.0.

I thought you said you did use the ph neutralized? If you did I would guess that's why you are having so many issues.

You had an ammonia spike which causes the ph to crash. When the ph drops too low beneficial bacteria die. You can add a bag of crushed coral to your filter to buffer the ph and try to keep it up during the cycle. I would say you are back at scratch.