my tap water is tad high ph wise. right around 7.6 or so. i have the seachem neutral regulator that brings it to 7 if you think that would help. tank has been running over a year now. had a wolf fish in it. had cichlids in it. most recently was large group of exodons.
ammonia issues.....
- Thread starter Skyeboy
- Start date
If your pH/kH are too low, your cycle can stall. Ammonia salicylate tests raise pH to 11 or higher to convert all ammonium to ammonia. That's why it's regarded as a total ammonia test--it can't distinguish between ammonium and ammonia. Likewise, increased pH and temperature in the tank will shift more ammonium to ammonia, which is more toxic, but it won't increase levels as reported by typical ammonia tests.
It might not be enough but sometimes you can find a lot of decomposing organic matter in the substrate or hidden at the bottom of the filter. Sucking that stuff out might be all you need. I got some improvement out of my filter by switching from bio balls to Kaldnes which have more surface area.
I don't like the use of phosphate-based buffers like neutral regulator of proper pH, ect. I agree with
S
squint
. My reason is that they raise phosphate levels very high. Phosphate levels that high are long-term killers of fish .. it's similar to nitrate at those levels. The only non-phosphate based buffer is a carbonate based buffer like seachem alkaline buffer which is mostly sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and potassium bicarbonate. You can simply buy baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) instead. However, I do not recommend your using this to raise your carbonate alkalinity (KH). Your toxic NH3 ammonia levels at ~7.6 pH aren't high enough to worry about with total ammonia (NH3 + NH4) at those levels. Nitrite is the bigger concern. Reduce feeding and give everything a cleaning/rinsing out in old tank water, but don't let any of the media dry out. Keep all biomedia. Don't throw anything out.
I should have mentioned that pH strait from the tap doesn't necessarily mean anything. The pH can increase or decrease over the next 24 hours because of excess CO2, (sodium) hydroxide added to the water from the plant, and/or things in your tank like driftwood releasing releasing acids or limestone rock or crushed coral adding alkalinity. Please check the pH of the tank water to make sure it's not high or too low. If it's too low then the nitrifying bacteria slow to a crawl.
I should have mentioned that pH strait from the tap doesn't necessarily mean anything. The pH can increase or decrease over the next 24 hours because of excess CO2, (sodium) hydroxide added to the water from the plant, and/or things in your tank like driftwood releasing releasing acids or limestone rock or crushed coral adding alkalinity. Please check the pH of the tank water to make sure it's not high or too low. If it's too low then the nitrifying bacteria slow to a crawl.
This is the case. Small rays need constant/a lot of food. To reduce food to solve waste is not the answer. That is dangerous for the animal and they will burn trough fat reserves quickly. This is the most common cause of early loss in rays IMO.
Increase your turn over ratio. I have x10 turnover for any tank with rays. Once you get into pond volumes you can relax that ratio. The smaller the tank (less than 400 gallons) the more critical the turnover ratio becomes.
Two FX6 packed with only bio and sponges would keep up with the rays at their current size until around the 8-9” mark depending on feeding and maintenance schedule. A sump and a lot of bio is a much better/cheaper alternative
Right now you have the option of lots of water changes and that is the best thing you can do until new filtration is added and catches up.
