tank crash ?????

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mattyfishes123

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Nov 18, 2010
Messages
15
Location
NY
Hey anybody ever experience the dreaded "tank crash"? im dealing with it right now..my PH is 6 or below..my ammo is at 1ppm..zero nitrites but for some reason i have 5.0 ppm nitrates..my gh is 4 and my kh is 2 ..my tank has been running for months and the cycle has never completed..what makes it strange is i do 25% weekly water changes/gravel vacuum and i have the water quality of a neglected tank,i dont over feed,not overstocked.i started to do daily 15-20% water changes/GV and i am gonna continue for 2-3 weeks or until it becomes stable.i figure the cause of my crash is too much organics which is causing acid to build and lower the ph and kh in turn i have no buffering capacity and my ph swings and dwindles my bacteria and my tank is constantly in "cycle"..i will stop babbling... my question is am i going about tank crash correctly with daily water changes or am i killing my pets..i have an eheim 2229 wet/dry and a fluval fx5 on the tank which is 125 gallons..but i only clean the fluval fx..it it possible that not cleaning my bio filter is causing this crash?
 
It almost sounds to me like you've been doing gravel vacuumings too often. Especially in larger tanks, a the gravel provides a ton of surface area for cycle bacteria, and vaccuming the gravel can remove some of that bacteria.

I'd recommend continuing the water changes, but don't vaccum the gravel unless it's becoming noticeably "dirty" or you start getting Planaria (little white worms that scoot around the glass where it meets the gravel.
 
Just had another idea - are either of your filter systems currently running Carbon or any kind of AmmoChip / Zeolite / etc?

It could be that the carbon / zeolite / ammo chips have expired are are now leaching acids into the water.
 
try testing your water for your water changes(before adding it of course), it may be that water to start off with. definitely read about it before
 
hey thanks for the advice..well i tend to try to minimize my carbon useage and only use it to remove medications and odor and i also never leave it in the filter too long about 3 weeks at the most before swapping new carbon so i doubt its the culprit..yeah i think your right.. i probably clean the gravel too much..its funny cause i GV with a gravel machine that states you can gravel without removing bacteria as it recycles the water through a filter and back into the tank then i seperately remove 25% with a python..thanks for the advice im gonna just keep doing water changes daily and GV every other week and see if that helps thanks again cheers
 
yeah its wierd i test my water that i use for water changes and my results are PH 7.6 GH 4 and KH 2 out of the tap then i condition..but once in the tank my PH plummets to 6.0 or below (my test kit only goes to 6).my gh and kh are already low from my source..i just got a lightbulb over my head..i should probably put baking soda in with my water changes..Do you think this would help? thanks for the advice cheers
 
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