SOS!! Ammonia!!

[batang_mcdo]

've added 2 teaspoon baking soda to my 300 gal tank. but ph tester still reads 4.5 which is the lowest it can go.
would it be a good idea to clean/change my filter media. since my tank is recycling anyway.

the driftwood has also been in my tank for more than a year.
my tanks all have big driftwoods.

I'll have to add crushed oyster shells.

 

[Nick660]

Personally I wouldn't disturb the filter for now, unless it's a long time since you last cleaned it and the flow is severely reduced or it's full of sludge. If you do clean it then obviously go gently and just rinse the media in water taken from the tank. The presence of a large amount of waste sludge will of course add to acidification.

Did you use the calculator I suggested to work out how much bicarb to dose?
http://www.dataguru.org/misc/aquarium/CalKH.asp?
You will probably need to add more than 2 tsp bicarb for a 300 gal tank. Maybe closer to 5 in order to get a significant KH and subsequent pH increase. Play around with some figures in the calculator first and you'll be able to see what sort of pH increase you will get for any given increase in KH.
It's much easier to work out if you know what your KH is - API do a test kit.
pH increase will be greater to start with if the tank KH is initially very low i.e. less than 1.
Unfortunately it's guess work until the pH gets off the bottom of the test range. Once it does, you'll be able to gradually add bicarb until you get the pH rise you want.
As your water is extremely acidic it may be the case that the bicarb will be used up very quickly at first, almost as soon as it enters the tank, in which case you may have to continue to add it gradually, a couple of teaspoons at a time (testing pH as you go), until you get a noticable effect on pH. I've never had to use bicarb on a tank with such a low pH so I can't say for sure. Just go carefully, testing all the way, and watching your fish closely for signs of stress. Good luck.

PS. Obviously continue with the daily 30+% water changes.

 

[Nick660]

Unfortunately I don't know enough about Asian Aro's to comment on their tolerance of extremely low pH. I would think that if the pH drop has been gradual and they have been able to adjust to it over time then it would be reasonable to take your time in correcting it. However, if the drop was sudden and is causing acute stress then it would probably be best to correct the pH more urgently.
As you've mentioned before, very low pH will have affected your bacterial colony, at least inhibiting it, possibly even to the point of killing it off over time! Ammonia will be an issue as the pH rises so you'll have to watch it very closely and act accordingly to control it initially, until the beneficial bacteria has time to recover.
Hope things work out ok

 

[batang_mcdo]

thanks for the help nick, i'll update you.
Will have to look for a test kit for kh since i haven't seen one around yet
Should i remove the giant driftwoods? i'm suspecting these might also cause my ph to drop. my dirftwoods are big. i keep them for my silver dollars to hide under.

 

[Lupin]

Should i remove the giant driftwoods? i'm suspecting these might also cause my ph to drop. my dirftwoods are big. i keep them for my silver dollars to hide under.

Driftwoods leach tannins and tannins lower pH depending on the hardness levels.

 

[batang_mcdo]

thanks! really have to remove the driftwoods.
my ammonia today is at 1mg/l again
i made a big water chnage again.
regarding kh tester. wasn't able to find any so i'm a little afarid of dosing with baking soda. since it might raise the ph then the ph might drop ?

i've added some corals not sure if its enough though. really hard to find kh tester here.
I'm also really puzzled about my ammonia. haven't fed my fish for a few days now. but its rising . I dosed with ammolock again.
also rinse my 15 gallon sump. there was lots of yucky sludge.
i change the media to matala mats. used to have foam inside.

update after my 50 % water change , cleaning my sump and changing some media plus adding corals.
was able to raise my ph past 4.5 luckily i tested my water first was going to add baking soda, but thought of testing first
the ph is now at 5.5 so didn't add the baking soda anymore

 

[Nick660]

Sounds like water changes alone may well be enough to bring your pH back up. Especially as you'll have to be changing water daily to remove the ammonia anyway. The pH increases will probably be greater to begin with and then less dramatic as the tank water chemistry gets closer to that of the tap water. I would still be careful not to go too quickly to avoid the risk of pH shock. Obviously it's a balance between controlling how quickly the pH rises and keeping the ammonia down to an acceptable level. Even if your fish are not eating they will still be producing some ammonia waste. Ammonia will continue to rise until the beneficial bacteria have recovered sufficiently to deal with it.

I suspect that a combination of driftwood, a build up of waste sludge, and heavy feeding are the main contributors to the acidity. Removing these factors will make a big difference. Water changes will then replace the carbonate hardness and increase the pH.

Sounds like things are going in the right direction. How are the fish? I assume you are continuing with salt and Melafix treatment.
Good luck.

 

[batang_mcdo]

Sounds like water changes alone may well be enough to bring your pH back up. Especially as you'll have to be changing water daily to remove the ammonia anyway. The pH increases will probably be greater to begin with and then less dramatic as the tank water chemistry gets closer to that of the tap water. I would still be careful not to go too quickly to avoid the risk of pH shock. Obviously it's a balance between controlling how quickly the pH rises and keeping the ammonia down to an acceptable level. Even if your fish are not eating they will still be producing some ammonia waste. Ammonia will continue to rise until the beneficial bacteria have recovered sufficiently to deal with it.

I suspect that a combination of driftwood, a build up of waste sludge, and heavy feeding are the main contributors to the acidity. Removing these factors will make a big difference. Water changes will then replace the carbonate hardness and increase the pH.

Sounds like things are going in the right direction. How are the fish? I assume you are continuing with salt and Melafix treatment.
Good luck.

thanks my silver arowana seems to have recovered. i lost a black barred silver dollar
the other one has cloudy eye. hope he make a full recovery. my 3 other arowanas seemt o be ok thogh.

 

[batang_mcdo]

A little frustrated. when i tested the waters ph, it was at 4.5 again
I'll take out the huge dritwood tomorrow.
also thinking of cleaning the canister ?
would this be a good idea? ammonia is at .25mg/l

 

[Nick660]

My guess is your canister filter is probably full of sludge same as the sump. I would clean it out but not change any of the media or sponges. You'll probably have to change the filter floss though. Use tank water and gently rinse all the sludge out so that you preserve as much of the bacteria as possible. Avoid letting the media dry out while you're doing it. Unfortunately you will probably be removing some bacteria with the driftwood but hopefully not a significant amount. As long as a good percentage of your bacteria remains it should recover quite quickly, especially once the pH gets up to around 6.0
If your tank is not bare bottom I would vacuum the substrate thoroughly too.

If the daily water changes still aren't enough to bring the pH up adequately, and keep it stable, then add some bicarb with it. Once you've removed the sources of acidification and the KH is above 4.5 dH your pH will remain stable. Just to give you an idea, in my heavily stocked and heavily fed tank the KH can drop by up to 1 dH per day! As you can imagine, when my supply water has a low KH I have to use quite large amounts of bicarb to keep the pH stable.