please HELP

[Bleeding]

Water is going south......

What would cause a 6 month tank to have an ammonia spike? I have been battling with nitrate levels being a little high for a while now. Its a 55 gal community (guppies, platy, zebra danio, neons)...i thought it was becasuse of overstocking possibly, so i removed 15 platy and fed them to an oscar/firemouth tank (which actually killed both of those fish, talked about in another forum,still no real answers yet).

I test the water param. 2x a week, ammonia is always zero, so it nitrite...its running with an eheim 2028 filter (just replaced the fine pad this week), and it actually has a hang on back filter for a 20 gallon also (extra that runs in the tank).

I tested the water from the tap, and found it to have 1ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 20ppm nitrate.....I did not discover this until recent, but have been doing 2x a week water changes for six months now.

So i wake up to a dead platy, and a betta who was in the tank who was acting extremly weird, floating vertically and then freaking out, then floating, feraking out...i quarantined him, hopefully he will make it.

The rest of the 20 or so fish look as if its a normal sunday morning, and everything is fine?!?!?! The ammonia spike is only like .25 ppm, but the water in the tap has over 8 ph (BUT, i have not done a water change in several days, so this would not be a factor from the last time i changed the water....)

wtf is going on.

 

[jonahonah]

just one question did you replace the whole filter pad in one go?

 

[Bleeding]

just one question did you replace the whole filter pad in one go?

Yes, its a cannister filter, and on its last stage of filtration, it has a small white pad that gets replaced regularly. I dont actually replace the 3L of media that is in the filter, or the coarse "blue" pad that is between the efimech and the efhisubstrat.

Also wanted to note that the ph in my tank is 7.5...

Ph from water supply is 8.8

 

[Mentzer]

Water is going south......

What would cause a 6 month tank to have an ammonia spike? I have been battling with nitrate levels being a little high for a while now. Its a 55 gal community (guppies, platy, zebra danio, neons)...i thought it was becasuse of overstocking possibly, so i removed 15 platy and fed them to an oscar/firemouth tank (which actually killed both of those fish, talked about in another forum,still no real answers yet).

I test the water param. 2x a week, ammonia is always zero, so it nitrite...its running with an eheim 2028 filter (just replaced the fine pad this week), and it actually has a hang on back filter for a 20 gallon also (extra that runs in the tank).

I tested the water from the tap, and found it to have 1ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 20ppm nitrate.....I did not discover this until recent, but have been doing 2x a week water changes for six months now.

So i wake up to a dead platy, and a betta who was in the tank who was acting extremly weird, floating vertically and then freaking out, then floating, feraking out...i quarantined him, hopefully he will make it.

The rest of the 20 or so fish look as if its a normal sunday morning, and everything is fine?!?!?! The ammonia spike is only like .25 ppm, but the water in the tap has over 8 ph (BUT, i have not done a water change in several days, so this would not be a factor from the last time i changed the water....)

wtf is going on.

Your source (tap) water is the problem. Oscar/Firemouth died of hypoxia due to co2 levels/dissolved oxygen depletion. Your tank shall not cycle and get on an even keel until you sort your source water problems.

1) Contact your water authority and ask for an explantion regarding the ammonia problem.
2) Set up a 10 gallon water butt or tank to store water prior to w/c which can be treated (and tested) prior to being siphoned or pumped into your tank.
3) Buy some zeolite and add it to your Eheim 2028 IMMEDIATELY. (1/2 a tray)
4) Put some peat IMMEDIATELY to your 2028 to buffer your pH gradually down (1/2 a tray)
5) Even if your ammonia spike is .25ppm, because of your high pH it is extremely toxic.
6) The water to be used once you have set-up your water butt or storage tank should be treated for chlorine, chloramines, ammonia as well as having both zeolite (ammonia removal) and a small pouch or bag of peat to buffer the pH down.

 

[Bleeding]

Mentzer,

I apprecaite your help. There is a bit of confusion however.

The 55 gallon that housed the Oscar/Firemouth IS at a different location. My brothers tank is at HIS house, which is 20 miles from here. His water comes from the same source (I assume, this is Kansas City), but he has NO problems with his tank or his water. He can actually pour water from the tap straight into the tank without treating it (he no longer does that however, he still treats it with stress coat before puttin it in).

MY tank is at my house, where the problematic water is, and NONE of my water went into his tank. The bag used to carry the feeder platys to his house was poured over a bucket thru a net to catch the fish.


With that said, it still does not really explain why for the past few months, i have had NO ammonia isses after i added this large filter, and now there would be ammonia in my water. I have not done a water change in a few days, and still am not sure what to do with all of the issues yet. I am moving in about a week and a half, and probably will have different conditions at the new location (its in a city just east of KC, with probably a different water supply/ph levels, etc.)

I am really considering tearing down this tank, nuking it, and moving the smaller fish to a 30 gallon i have, and making this tank an african cic. tank. They require a higher ph, however.

 

[Mentzer]

Ok, I see. Let me think about it for a few hours and I shall post again.

 

[Bleeding]

K