Need help with water chem!

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quasar

quasar

Piranha
MFK Member
Jul 16, 2012
947
142
76
Montreal, Quebec
my ammonia is super high (4-8ppm), PH is 6, and nitrite and nitrates are low (0.25 and 0). What hell do i do? AT these readings of PH and ammonia everything should be dead. I know its not my test kit because i checked on reg tap water and the readings were fine. I did a 40% water change 2 days ago, I run an aquaclear 110+aquaclear 70 for a 90g tank and the water is super clear. I stock an oscar cichlid, a wolf fish (hoplias malabaricus), and a jag cichlid ( soon to be gone because my brother brought this home without my permission). The biggest fish are the wolf and oscar at 12" and 13" respectively, the poly is at 8" and the jag is 7". I wouldn't say my tank is perfect but its not over stocked (at least i dont find), and the tank has been running for a year. Nothing was added recently (most recent fish was Jag about 3 months ago), so what can this possibly be due to?
 
Those reading indicate that the tank is not cycled, but you say it has been running a year. Not sure how you get a reading of zero for nitrates unless you have no bacteria to break the nitrites down to nitrates.

Maybe a water change with chlorine killed off your filters or have your filters been off for some time?

Ammonia is less toxic at lower ph, it form ammonium which is less toxic to fish.

I would be doing 50% water changes daily as your BB builds back up. Prime can lock ammonia for a short time i believe.
 
well the thing is i never dechlorinate my water, up until now it has never been a problem. I've been told by some LFS i go to that unless i do like a huge water change it shouldnt hurt the BB in my filters. My filters wernt off ever, unless is it possible that because they are HOBs and when i did the 40% change the water wasnt going through the filter for about 10m, would this be the problem?

but what dusnt make sense is that the nitrites and nitrates are low. Shouldnt one or both be high in a case like this?
 
quasar said:
my ammonia is super high (4-8ppm), PH is 6, and nitrite and nitrates are low (0.25 and 0). What hell do i do? At these readings of PH and ammonia everything should be dead. I know its not my test kit because i checked on reg tap water and the readings were fine.
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Although technically, without the temperature in the tank, and how long it's been at 4-8ppm, I can't say precisely, but this is likely incorrect.

1) your fish are not dead
2) your readings are likely a total of ammonia and ammonium, and not just ammonia
3) at low pH, ammonium is very high, while ammonia is very low
4) ammonium does not kill fish


Agree with Sunley. You either have an uncycled tank or you killed off all your BB using chlorinated water. You're lucky that your pH is that low or I think yes, you'd have a tank full of dead pets.

Reduce the amount you are feeding drastically (50%), follow his instructions and test your water daily. If you have any mature media from another tank, try transferring a small amount over to the filters in this tank.

Consider not changing water again without a proper water conditioner. Prime (liquid) or Safe (powder) are good.
 
Drstrangelove said:
Although technically, without the temperature in the tank, and how long it's been at 4-8ppm, I can't say precisely, but this is likely incorrect.

1) your fish are not dead
2) your readings are likely a total of ammonia and ammonium, and not just ammonia
3) at low pH, ammonium is very high, while ammonia is very low
4) ammonium does not kill fish


Agree with Sunley. You either have an uncycled tank or you killed off all your BB using chlorinated water. You're lucky that your pH is that low or I think yes, you'd have a tank full of dead pets.

Reduce the amount you are feeding drastically (50%), follow his instructions and test your water daily. If you have any mature media from another tank, try transferring a small amount over to the filters in this tank.

Consider not changing water again without a proper water conditioner. Prime (liquid) or Safe (powder) are good.
Click to expand...

But why did it happen this time? I without joke always do it like this. Also the tank is at 78°F

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It has been raining an abnormal amount this year in Montreal yes. You think that would affect it :s?

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Water treatment plants add chlorine to the water to help kill any bacteria from the run off from the rain. If I had to guess, chlorine killed your bb and now you have to start all over. This is exactly why I always use dechlorinator on any water change, big or small.


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strollo22 said:
Water treatment plants add chlorine to the water to help kill any bacteria from the run off from the rain. If I had to guess, chlorine killed your bb and now you have to start all over. This is exactly why I always use dechlorinator on any water change, big or small.


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Click to expand...

So should i get the cycle product? Or the fact i already have fish in there going to speed up the process. Also is it weird my fish seem the same? Look like i threw a golfish in and swam and acted normal until my wolf ate it of course. Is it possible that this happens often in my tank and my fish are used to it somehow? Im not saying its right and im not going to bother with the dechlorinator , but is it possible?

Also how do i use this stuff? Do i just throw it in when i add the new water? Sorry if it seems dumb to ask, i want to try to avoid more screwing up with luck

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The fact that you have a little bit of nitrites means it didn't "completely" crash. Go pick up a bottle of prime and stability at your lfs tomorrow. Prime is a dechlorinator and it also detoxifies ammonia. Do a 50% water change to get the levels down to 2-4ppm ammonia and add a double dose of prime as soon as you start putting new water in. Add the stability (for helping bacteria grow) after all the new water is in. Hopefully you will only have to do this for a couple of weeks. Try to keep the ammonia levels between 2-4 ppm at all times while using prime to keep the fish alive. And feed very little.


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