related to ph, but more complicated (sorry this is long)

[sumarty2]

hi,

this is my first post...I am pretty new to things bad happening to aquariums..even tho I have had my 75 gal tank now for about 13 years.
at present it is occupied by about 7 silver tetras or are they called black tetras?? in addition the water sprite is growing like crazy with a couple of amazon sword plants doing pretty well. I had 10 fish until a couple of weeks ago when I lost a few in the span of about 2 weeks. then I checked the pH and it was 6!! (to my surprise). the water out of my faucet is about 7.2. Ammonia and nitrate were neg. I started doing partial water changes daily (previously I had done them every other week and a full filter change about every 1 1/2 months...(this being the original marine land canister filter). with these daily water changes I sucked out from the gravel all the debris...in fact I was thinking by day 5 the gravel never looked cleaner. but my pH was still 6. the second day I removed my driftwood which was no longer needed by a pleco that was shipped off to greener pastures when he out grew my tank (after being with me for 15 years!)anyway on day 3 I changed my filter which was about 1 month from the last time I cleaned it. the weird thing about that was there was no "gunk" stuck in the carbon cartridge mesh thing which usually is full of "gunk". I began to think my filter was not doing what it is supposed to do. so I added a "HOT" magnum which hangs on tank...had that in a previous life. On day 5 of water changes I tested the ammonia and it was creeping up. that got me thinking that oops I messed up the biological filter by sucking all the bacteria out of the gravel.
in deed.....over the next few days the ammonia took off and I began adding ammolock and added ammonia removing media to the HOT filter. I have been adding ammolock everyother day as stated on the bottle. Plus I added "cycle" beneficial bacteria to my tank 3 days ago. Still my ammonia is reading 8 (the highest). I cut back my feeding of my fish which seem oblivious to my stress. in 3 more days I will be at one week since the ammonia has been spiking. I have order a new eheim filter in the hopes that will save me. any comments would be appreciated!

 

[Sicklid]

OK, first off, I don't beleive that the bacteria in the gravel can be killed by vacuuming too much, they are stuck to the gravel and bottom glass with a bio-film that is pretty resilient. You may have diminished them but you did not remove them all...

Are your fish all ten years old? They could just be dying of old age! It sounds to me more like "old tank syndrome" being that your tank has been up and running for 13 years successfully. Congrats on that feat alone! But that's what I suspect it is. A tank gets so old, that it crashes.

I don't know what the cure for that is, but I don't think a fresh filter is it. I think you need a mature filter on a tank that has been totally torn down, cleaned, disinfected, and re-cycled from scratch. Hopefully someone else can make a recommendation.

 

[Purrbox]

Are you sure that you're ammonia is really that high? Since the fish aren't showing signs of stress, which I would expect with ammonia that high, I'm doubtful that the levels are really at 8ppm. I would recommend verifiying your results by having your LFS test a sample of your water.

If your Ammonia levels are up, then it's probably because of all the junk that got stirred up by your vigorous cleaning. The beneficial bacteria clings to surfaces, so unless the gravel was actually removed, it would be unlikely that you disturbed it much.

 

[Zagz]

Moved to sick fish forum as it relates to sick fish and not plants.

 

[Zagz]

I would suspect the ammo lock is affecting your readings on your test kit. What is your test kit? Liquid or test strips? How old is your kit? A stable ph is better than fluctuating ph. I also doubt that your bacterial cycle was destroyed by the gravel vac. If you are adding a new filter on the tank, keep the old one for at least 3 weeks to get the new filter cycled. I would stop adding things to the tank and watch the fish for signs. I would also take a sample of water to your lfs and have them test it for you to confirm or un-confirm your ammonia readings. With ammonia of 8pp, your fish would all be dead in very short order.

 

[BillD]

With a pH of 6, the ammonia is in the nontoxic form, ammonium. Seven tetras, in a 75, that has plants that are growing, should be a tank with no, ammonia, no nitrite, and virtually no nitrate. Something is amiss, but unless there is a source of ammonia being added to the tank, those readings have to be wrong.

 

[sumarty2]

the ammonia kit is only a couple years old. the thing is it was O about a week ago and then started spiking up right after I did all those water changes. Is LFS local fish shop? ya I was thinking of doing that but I can't make it until sat, which is tomorrow. I really think the ammonia was there and I converted it to the non toxic form by adding AmmoLoc which is a liquid. the ammonia test is a two part test where you add 8 drops of both solutions and wait 5min.

I tell you something is weird with the filter because after one month I never saw such a clean mesh inside the carbon box. usually it is filled with black gunk.

and my tetras are probably 5 years old. I sure hope my tank isn't crashing!

just an update...I just checked my tap water and tap water with stress coat added and the ammonia was 0.

 

[Zagz]

Usually test kits have an average shelf life of about one year. I would get the water tested at the lfs, yes that is local fish shop, tommorow. The filter in that size tank with the stocking you have should not get dirty very quickly.

 

[sumarty2]

well just to update on the latest...i went to the lfs and indeed the numbers I got were accurate. the nitrate was up too. (i miss-spoke originally; I tested nitrite not nitrate and that was 0). he suggested doing 20% water changes 2x week and feed every other day until this is under control. i went back home, did the water change (another thing I forgot to mention was how cloudy the water was getting...another reason to question my filter). then I took my filter apart (it was so disgustingly cloudy in there...and I just changed it 5 days ago). I test ran it by connecting it to a bucket of water and it looked like the water kept getting more and more cloudy instead of the reverse. I then tightened the connections to the intake opening and reconnected it to the tank. finally it looked like the water was getting clearer. so I don't think the filter was working properly for at least 1-2 weeks. hopefully my tank will improve over the next few days and when I get my new filter in I will keep the old one running unless it looks like it is failing again.

so my instincts were right after all.