SOS Fish tank Parameter problems

[xspainx69]

If I miscatagorized this thread , I do apologize and redirect it.


I have a 75 Gallon Tank with a largemouth bass and a channel cat both around 6 inches. ( I know I need to upgrade soon)



I have a problem with my water parameters:

pH of 6.0
Ammonia- 4.0 PPM
Nitrite- .25 PPM
Nitrate- 0 PPM

I did a 75 % water change and went nuts getting all the poop and waste I could find.

I have a Emperor 400 and I changed the Filter Media and added new Carbon/Ammo Chips.

After the water change I retested and this is my results:

pH - 6.6
Ammonia- .50
Nitrite- .25 (Same)
Nitrate- 0 PPM (Same)

Any suggestions on how to raise up my pH and fix the ammonia issue?

Will the adding of new Filter Media assist in fixing the remaining Ammonia?

The fish look real stressed out after doing a big water change, should I add salt now or wait a day?

Thanks

 

[Nick660]

Regarding the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate readings :-
If this is a newly set up tank then it hasn't cycled properly yet.
If it was well established previously then something has damaged your biological filter/beneficial bacteria. Changing out established filter media for new would cause this. Also chronic low pH will inhibit the actions and growth of beneficial bacteria.

Your best course of action is large daily water changes (50%) until the ammonia and nitrIte remain at zero. Personally i would also use something like Seachem Prime/Safe to help detoxify the ammonia and nitrite (it will still show up on tests but will have been converted to a less toxic form).
Also stop feeding, or at least reduce it to a bare minimum, until water quality improves.

Regarding the low pH :-
I suspect you have insufficient carbonate buffering, i.e. KH is less than 4.5dH (I would advise getting a test kit to monitor it).
A combination of heavy stocking, heavy feeding, and inadequate water changes will quckly lead to a drop in KH followed by a pH crash.

With daily water changes your KH, and subsequently pH, should eventually come back up to match that of your tap water. If it doesn't then you may have to add bicarbonate of soda to your water, or either crushed coral or oyster shells to your filter. Bicarb is quicker and more accurate whereas oyster shells or coral is slower but less complicated. If you use the bicarb method aim to increase pH by a maximim of 0.4 per day (0.2 per day would be safer....depends on how urgent it is). Here's a very useful online calculator http://www.dataguru.org/misc/aquarium/CalKH.asp? for this purpose.
Personally I would just go with the daily water changes first and see what happens to your KH and pH. Next step would be bicarb.

Your fish are probably stressed from a combination of exposure to high ammonia, pH crash, and then the 75% water change and resulting large shift of water parameters.

Good luck with all that. I hope it helps.

PS...here's another thread dealing with a similar problem to yours. http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=110100
It's long but worth a look .

 

[xspainx69]

Regarding the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate readings :-
If this is a newly set up tank then it hasn't cycled properly yet.
If it was well established previously then something has damaged your biological filter/beneficial bacteria. Changing out established filter media for new would cause this. Also chronic low pH will inhibit the actions and growth of beneficial bacteria.

Your best course of action is large daily water changes (50%) until the ammonia and nitrIte remain at zero. Personally i would also use something like Seachem Prime/Safe to help detoxify the ammonia and nitrite (it will still show up on tests but will have been converted to a less toxic form).
Also stop feeding, or at least reduce it to a bare minimum, until water quality improves.

Regarding the low pH :-
I suspect you have insufficient carbonate buffering, i.e. KH is less than 4.5dH (I would advise getting a test kit to monitor it).
A combination of heavy stocking, heavy feeding, and inadequate water changes will quckly lead to a drop in KH followed by a pH crash.

With daily water changes your KH, and subsequently pH, should eventually come back up to match that of your tap water. If it doesn't then you may have to add bicarbonate of soda to your water, or either crushed coral or oyster shells to your filter. Bicarb is quicker and more accurate whereas oyster shells or coral is slower but less complicated. If you use the bicarb method aim to increase pH by a maximim of 0.4 per day (0.2 per day would be safer....depends on how urgent it is). Here's a very useful online calculator http://www.dataguru.org/misc/aquarium/CalKH.asp? for this purpose.
Personally I would just go with the daily water changes first and see what happens to your KH and pH. Next step would be bicarb.

Your fish are probably stressed from a combination of exposure to high ammonia, pH crash, and then the 75% water change and resulting large shift of water parameters.

Good luck with all that. I hope it helps.

PS...here's another thread dealing with a similar problem to yours. http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=110100
It's long but worth a look .

I just got home from work now, I retested the water and here is my updated readings:

pH- 7.4
Ammonia-0.25 PPM
Nitrite- 0 PPM
Nitrate-0 PPM

I had a lot of feeders and I flushed most of them down the toilet. A friend told me that over crowding the tank with feeders for my monster fish could cause water parameter problems.

I am going to put in some ammo-lock.

 

[marmot]

It also wouldn't hurt to add some filtration. I know the box says an Emperor 400 is good for 80 gallons, and you only have 75, but with two 6" predatory fish, I wouldn't skate with the bare minimum here.

Have you bought a Polyfilter or two? I think with an Emperor 400, there are two filter cartridges right? You can buy two Polyfilters and slide them in (They run ~$13.00 apiece), and they will also collect ammonia quickly. Cool thing about them is they will show you what was collected by what color they turn. Worth it, in my opinion.

 

[Nick660]

Extra filtration, Ammo-Lock, Polyfilter.......all good ideas.
However, IMO, your biggest friend will be daily water changes until you're sure the tank has cycled properly.

From your updated water test results it looks like water changes alone are going to be enough to stabilise and maintain the pH. Should still keep an eye on the KH with a heavily stocked tank though.

 

[xspainx69]

Update, my pH is still acidic, (6.0)

Ammonia -0 PPM
Nitrite- 0PPM
Nitrate- 0PPM

I added some Ammo-lock yesterday and put in some Carbon/Ammo chips in my filter media.

It seems the other stuff is under control, but my pH remains acidic and I am not sure why.....(I've had this tank for months, Its more than cycled.)

I will attempt a 50 % water change on monday. I just did a 75 % water change yesterday and they are still pretty pissed off at me for doing that big water change. So I am discontinuing their feeders and waiting till probably sometime around tuesday to feed them again after they had their water change.

 

[Nick660]

Update, my pH is still acidic, (6.0)

Ammonia -0 PPM
Nitrite- 0PPM
Nitrate- 0PPM

I added some Ammo-lock yesterday and put in some Carbon/Ammo chips in my filter media.

It seems the other stuff is under control, but my pH remains acidic and I am not sure why.....(I've had this tank for months, Its more than cycled.)

Your tank may indeed have cycled once but that doesn't mean to say the beneficial bacteria won't die off or stop doing it's job if something affects it.....such as extremely low KH and/or pH!

As your pH has crashed again in a short space of time I would think that the tap water you added has an insufficient level of KH to correct the problem alone. My guess is you will need to add some bicarb to stabilise it.

My suggestion is to re-read my original post and also do a bit of research regarding water chemistry so you can get an understanding of what is happening in your tank
Here's a few links to get you started :-
http://www.drhelm.com/aquarium/chemistry.html
http://www.koivet.com/html/articles/articles_details.php?article_id=111
http://www.dataguru.org/misc/aquarium/CalKH.asp?
http://www.dataguru.org/misc/aquarium/FishInfo.html (On this page scroll down to the section on water quality - loads of useful stuff to read there!)

Looks a lot but it's not too difficult and worth knowing in the long run

 

[xspainx69]

Your tank may indeed have cycled once but that doesn't mean to say the beneficial bacteria won't die off or stop doing it's job if something affects it.....such as extremely low KH and/or pH!

As your pH has crashed again in a short space of time I would think that the tap water you added has an insufficient level of KH to correct the problem alone. My guess is you will need to add some bicarb to stabilise it.

My suggestion is to re-read my original post and also do a bit of research regarding water chemistry so you can get an understanding of what is happening in your tank
Here's a few links to get you started :-
http://www.drhelm.com/aquarium/chemistry.html
http://www.koivet.com/html/articles/articles_details.php?article_id=111
http://www.dataguru.org/misc/aquarium/CalKH.asp?
http://www.dataguru.org/misc/aquarium/FishInfo.html (On this page scroll down to the section on water quality - loads of useful stuff to read there!)

Looks a lot but it's not too difficult and worth knowing in the long run

I read this and I understand, but I am not sure why my pH crashed to begin with....

My tap water tests at 7.0 pH (Neutral)

I am going to get the KH tester at the lfs tomorrow after work. It says I need to add baking soda. I also have some crushed coral from when I used to have African Cichlids. I dropped some in their tank to see if it will help a bit.

I am worried now because I am not sure why this is happening.

 

[Nick660]

Low KH + Heavy bioload = pH crash
Heavy bioload will consume KH rapidly
Inadequate water changes for your bioload means you are not replacing KH enough to keep it up to an adequate level to support the pH.

Adding bicarbonates to your tank will help.

Build up of CO2 (due to inadequate aeration for example) and the presence of acidifying materials such as bogwood, or the accumulation of organic waste in your filter or substrate, will also contribute to acidification.

 

[xspainx69]

Do you guys think that (pH 7.0 Stabiliser by "Jungle") will help????
It says that it is a neutral buffer that maintains pH.