50% every week seems like too much and might be throwing your bacteria and ecosystem out of wack. let it chill for 2 weeks and do a 20% every other week, you might get more stable readings.
Is there a chemist in the house?
- Thread starter kdrun76
- Start date
Tilapia Buttikoferi;3656432; said:
If I changed less than 50% a week in the 210 my nitrates would sky rocket. Those are riverine fish that are designed for a constantly flushing system.
The tank has in it two growing pacu that are currently about 15-16" long along with a few other things like a 13" pleco. The bio load is very high. Its nitrates hit 40ppm in a week with out any trouble. I do 50-60% changes at least once a week and often every 5 days to battle them. I seriously think the nitrates would go right over my ability to test them if I did that.
Do you really think its worth it to let the nitrates get that high to see if that will stabilize the pH, KH and GH?
(The pacus get a 550 gallon tank in April, they have to stay in the 210 until then.)
I figured out what is wrong in the guppy tank.
I change its water using the "distilled water" from my dehumidifier. I just tested that water.... OH BOY!
It has 4ppm of ammonia in it! And 0KH and GH, so of course the tank has unstable pH and is positive for ammonia right after a water change. I will put them back on tap water starting... 4 hours ago.
The pacu tank has a monstrous piece of drift wood that I believe is hemlock in it. For now I am going to blame that and try to counter it with some crushed coral in the substrate.
I change its water using the "distilled water" from my dehumidifier. I just tested that water.... OH BOY!
It has 4ppm of ammonia in it! And 0KH and GH, so of course the tank has unstable pH and is positive for ammonia right after a water change. I will put them back on tap water starting... 4 hours ago.
The pacu tank has a monstrous piece of drift wood that I believe is hemlock in it. For now I am going to blame that and try to counter it with some crushed coral in the substrate.
Lesson learned everyone shold note... Do not reuse dehumidifier water... It's nasty stuff... This explains the low paramters and high waste in the guppie tank...
How thoroughly is the Pacu tank cleaned? "Old tank syndrom" is a very (very very) loosely defined term and can therefore have different symptoms pending details.
If the Pacu tank is a mature tank, and it has an ammonia reading, there is a problem somewhere... What kind of current is in this tank? How thoroughly is the tank / are the filters cleaned? Have you ever tested your water for phosphates?
Driftwood lowers PH by leaching tannic acid into the water, tannic acid is 'tannins' which is what turns water tea colored. For the Driftwood in your tank to be the sole cause of your PH crashing the water would be quite dark.
I suspect you have excessive waste in the system that is also acidic by nature and causing the PH to crash...
How thoroughly is the Pacu tank cleaned? "Old tank syndrom" is a very (very very) loosely defined term and can therefore have different symptoms pending details.
If the Pacu tank is a mature tank, and it has an ammonia reading, there is a problem somewhere... What kind of current is in this tank? How thoroughly is the tank / are the filters cleaned? Have you ever tested your water for phosphates?
Driftwood lowers PH by leaching tannic acid into the water, tannic acid is 'tannins' which is what turns water tea colored. For the Driftwood in your tank to be the sole cause of your PH crashing the water would be quite dark.
I suspect you have excessive waste in the system that is also acidic by nature and causing the PH to crash...
The ammonia in the pacu tank was easily explained. It came from a mass feeding of veggies as was written in the first post.
The complete lackof KH, GH and REALLY low pH are of concern though. The water does darken each week from tannins, but not enough that anyone other than myself would notice. I have tried retesting the pH, KH and GH hours after a 50% change and have found that the ions (carbonate and CA+/MG+) are in the water immediately following a water change, but gone with in 48 hours. Something in the tank is using up or converting the the KH and GH ions.
Like I said, I will put a few lbs of crushed coral int eh substrate and see if I can get some calcium carbonate to leach into the water.
The complete lackof KH, GH and REALLY low pH are of concern though. The water does darken each week from tannins, but not enough that anyone other than myself would notice. I have tried retesting the pH, KH and GH hours after a 50% change and have found that the ions (carbonate and CA+/MG+) are in the water immediately following a water change, but gone with in 48 hours. Something in the tank is using up or converting the the KH and GH ions.
Like I said, I will put a few lbs of crushed coral int eh substrate and see if I can get some calcium carbonate to leach into the water.
