Water Quality Out of Control

[queenieee]

Hi all...I'm new to the forum and have looked around and haven't seen my exact problem addressed, so here it goes. My Apple Snails were in a serious decline, but everyone else was going along okay. I did a water test and my pH was 6.0, nitrAtes and nitrites were both zero but my ammonia was 4.

I did a 20% water change. I treated the remaining water with ammonia neutralizer, used Prime and Easy Balance on the new water as well as adding aquarium salt, ammonia neutralized, and water clarifier on the new water. Once the water change was complete, I added substrate cleaner and bacterial supplement. After about 6 hours cycling, I retested the water and my pH was up to 7.4 (OK), my nitrites were zero, but my nitrAtes spiked to 2 and my ammonia is still up around 2.

I don't know if I should change out some more water or just continue to try and adjust the water chemically (keep adding ammonia neutralizer, bacteria supplements, and substrate cleaner). The snails are only slightly better, the fish seem happy, however, I have withheld any food from them since the water change. At this point, I'm kind of stumped, so any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a bunch!

 

[shellieca]

First welcome. Is this a new tank? As for your water, you want nitrAtes so don't worry about those unless they go over 40, preferrably keep them below 20. What are you using to test your water with, strips or a liquid test? Do NOT add all of the chemicals, all you need is the Prime water conditioner. Do you use buckets or a water changer when doing doing water changes? If buckets you treat the bucket & if a water changer you treat for the full tank size before you add the new water. Because your ammonia is so high I would do a 50% water change, wait an hour, retest & then do another water if necessary. It is better to leave your Ph alone than to try & adjust it, a stable Ph is what you want, regular water changes should keep your Ph in balance unless your tap water has a low Ph. Your tank should stay healthy if you do regular vacuuming & a good water change, most of us do weekly 50% water changes unless the tank is cycling then much more often water changes are required.

EDIT: here is a link you may want to read if this tank is new
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/artic...g-but-I-already-have-fish-What-now/Page2.html

 

[Mudfrog]

First welcome. Is this a new tank? As for your water, you want nitrAtes so don't worry about those unless they go over 40, preferrably keep them below 20. What are you using to test your water with, strips or a liquid test? Do NOT add all of the chemicals, all you need is the Prime water conditioner. Do you use buckets or a water changer when doing doing water changes? If buckets you treat the bucket & if a water changer you treat for the full tank size before you add the new water. Because your ammonia is so high I would do a 50% water change, wait an hour, retest & then do another water if necessary. It is better to leave your Ph alone than to try & adjust it, a stable Ph is what you want, regular water changes should keep your Ph in balance unless your tap water has a low Ph. Your tank should stay healthy if you do regular vacuuming & a good water change, most of us do weekly 50% water changes unless the tank is cycling then much more often water changes are required.

EDIT: here is a link you may want to read if this tank is new
I just learned about cycling but I already have fish. What now?! - Aquarium Advice

Very good advice here. Snails will usually indicate a problem with water quality before fish will. Since you have ammonia and no nitrites / nitrates your tank is not cycled. Your going to need to do around 50% water changes each day until it cycles. Hopefully your fish will pull through.

 

[queenieee]

Hi...thanks for the response. It's not a new tank, pretty well established actually (about 2 years old). I do use a testing kit, not strips and I use buckets to change water. Under normal circumstances, I would only treat the water being brought into the buckets, but since the ammonia was so terribly high, I figured I needed to treat the remaining water as well.

When I got up this morning, the water looks greenish...blah. I will do a 50% water change and retest after an hour and see what the water conditions are and be reporting back. I am using a testking kit, not strips (I only use stips if I want a quick reading, not an accurate reading). Sadly, I'm pretty sure my big momma snail isn't going to survive, but her offspring seem to be hanging tough and the fish aren't showing too many signs of stress. Quick question on the water changes, when I'm changing, should I be digging down into the substrate getting all the dirty stuff out (good bacteria hanging out there as well is my guess.). Thanks for your help!

 

[shellieca]

Hi...thanks for the response. It's not a new tank, pretty well established actually (about 2 years old). I do use a testing kit, not strips and I use buckets to change water. Under normal circumstances, I would only treat the water being brought into the buckets, but since the ammonia was so terribly high, I figured I needed to treat the remaining water as well.

When I got up this morning, the water looks greenish...blah. I will do a 50% water change and retest after an hour and see what the water conditions are and be reporting back. Sadly, I'm pretty sure my big momma snail isn't going to survive, but her offspring seem to be hanging tough and the fish aren't showing too many signs of stress. Quick question on the water changes, when I'm changing, should I be digging down into the substrate getting all the dirty stuff out (good bacteria hanging out there as well is my guess.). Thanks for your help!

Did you make any recent changes to the tank; filter media, add inhabitants? It sounds like it's going through a cycle because of something. You always want to vacuum the substrate, the BB is actually attached & won't be vacuumed out. If you have NOT done a good deep vacuum that could be part of the problem. My suggestion is to take a section at a time, doing a really good deep vacuum & water change. If you do a deep vacuum on too much of the tank when it hasn't been done in a while, you could release some gases that can cause problems. I vacuum each week when I do a water change. I have gravel substrates & I burrow that vac down into the gravel until it touches the glass on the bottom, it's pretty gross how much gunk is sucked up.

 

[queenieee]

Did you make any recent changes to the tank; filter media, add inhabitants? It sounds like it's going through a cycle because of something. You always want to vacuum the substrate, the BB is actually attached & won't be vacuumed out. If you have NOT done a good deep vacuum that could be part of the problem. My suggestion is to take a section at a time, doing a really good deep vacuum & water change. If you do a deep vacuum on too much of the tank when it hasn't been done in a while, you could release some gases that can cause problems. I vacuum each week when I do a water change. I have gravel substrates & I burrow that vac down into the gravel until it touches the glass on the bottom, it's pretty gross how much gunk is sucked up.

I sucked out quite a bit of that nastiness yesterday during the water change. My potted plants sure like it though! I haven't had a chance to do a water change today. I did recheck ammonia...still way high. I should have time to do the water change in about an hour
or so, so I will retest and post results. I haven't added anything to the tank in a couple of weeks. I had some Balloon Mollys, but they didn't survive the spike. I didn't notice they had died immediately....could their little dead bodies have affected the quality?

I posted another post in the sick fish forum (titled 'apple snails') because I'm really concerned about them. If anyone can pop over there and give me some input on that, I would really appreciate that too.

I apologize for being such a pain about this, but I'm really at a loss as to what caused this and I want to get it controlled before everything dies on me. Thanks again.

 

[Mudfrog]

The snails are struggling because of the ammonia and mini cycle. Once that issue is resolved your snails should be fine (as long as they survive the cycle).

What kind of filter are you using? If your using one with a throw away cartridge I would highly recommend looking into something that uses a BIO bag of some sort.

 

[shellieca]

I sucked out quite a bit of that nastiness yesterday during the water change. My potted plants sure like it though! I haven't had a chance to do a water change today. I did recheck ammonia...still way high. I should have time to do the water change in about an hour
or so, so I will retest and post results. I haven't added anything to the tank in a couple of weeks. I had some Balloon Mollys, but they didn't survive the spike. I didn't notice they had died immediately....could their little dead bodies have affected the quality?

I posted another post in the sick fish forum (titled 'apple snails') because I'm really concerned about them. If anyone can pop over there and give me some input on that, I would really appreciate that too.

I apologize for being such a pain about this, but I'm really at a loss as to what caused this and I want to get it controlled before everything dies on me. Thanks again.

Oh yes your water quality can be affected by dead fish especially if they were in there for a while. You'll want to make time to get some water changes in, that ammonia has to get down otherwise you're going to lose more fish. It's possible the fish you added weren't 100% healthy. Did you QT them before adding? And you're not being a pain, that's what this forum is for - asking questions & getting help.

 

[Borderlesscott]

Cut back on the chemicals, way to many - Prime is all you need.

 

[phishfriend]

Also if you have snails that may have died in the substrate that your not aware of. This will cause ammonia spikes. Lots of water changes and less chemicals.

 

[shellieca]

Also if you have snails that may have died in the substrate that your not aware of. This will cause ammonia spikes. Lots of water changes and less chemicals.

Good point. If you haven't checked every nook & cranny for a deceased inhabitant you may want to. There could be something stuck somewhere you're not aware of that is continuing to cause a problem.

 

[queenieee]

Ya'll are great....thanks for all the advice. So here's where I stand...I have completed yet another water change and checked my ammonia levels again, it's down to 1.0 ppm which is a HUGE improvement over 8 ppm. Someone asked about my filter, I have a Whisper 55. While I was doing my water change last night, I had a bit of an epiphany. I tested my tap water without treatment and it has about 1 ppm of ammonia. I treated the water with Prime and Ammonia Neutralizer and it came back to zero. Not sure if that impacts anything, but I will continue to add the Neutralizer when adding water. Also, I am pretty sure that my momma snail died. I will put her in a smaller tank with filter and see if she comes out, but since someone said if she is dead she can cause an ammonia spike I don't want to put her back unless I'm sure she's alive. I guess at this point, I do yet another 50% water change...is there anything else?? I know I don't have any other floaters, as I have removed a the decorations and plants (except the real plants) until I get the water normalized. Side note: when I'm digging the vaccum down into the substrate, I am STILL getting nasty icky dark black green water coming up...even after 3 water changes. Thanks again everyone. Any other ideas, I'm open to them!!!

 

[phishfriend]

Nope! At this point it's watch...test and wait. I also had the tap water ammonia problem but once the bio system catches up you should be good to go! Glad to be of some help?. Sry about your snail.