Water Quality Issues -Help

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Ash

Ash

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Jul 27, 2005
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Has anyone experience this so called "old tank syndrome"?

I am having some weird problems with my tank (I don't "neglect it" as is the supposed reason of this issue, it gets regular maintenance).

I do regular water changes/filter cleanings every 2 weeks - this tank has been running for well over 5 years now with the same fish. I have ocean clear canisters and the food I feed cakes up the canister bad so it needs the regular cleanings. Nothing has changed on the tank in many years. No new fish. Everything has been fine until a few days ago.

The filter is two ocean clear canisters one has beads the other has a filter cartridge, I recently added in purigen.

I have no idea what is going on. I haven't changed anything I do with my regular maintenance - The last water change was just like all of the other ones I do.

I did a filter cleaning and water change like normal a week 1/2 ago. Everything was fine then about a week after the water change all the sudden my tank got cloudy. I did a water test and had high nitrates - everything else was 0 and pH was 7.4. I did another water change - I checked the filters but they were still really clean so I left them a lone. As time has gone on the nitrates fluctuate between 0-40 (it's at 10 right currently). The pH has crashed, its been steadily declining. The nitrites have remained at 0. The ammonia has held steady at .25 now for a few days. The water is stupid cloudy.

Current readings:

Nitrate: 10
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: .25
PH: Below 6.0

The only thing I have read is that I can keep doing small water changes and hope that works. I get not to buffer the water because the higher the pH the more toxic the ammonia and at this point my BB is either inactive or dead, so I need to ease into it. I

I am not sure if there is anything else I can do? I don't know what to do at this point. I feel like water changes are just not helping me. Will have to tare down and re-start? I don't have a spare running tank atm. I have empty tanks in the attic I can use but no BB to jump start them.

Any suggestions?



Short version:

Tanks been running for 5 years. Has frontosa/synodontis (10/1) - no new fish. Water changes/filter cleanings every 2 weeks. I have not changed anything with the regular maintenance. Did a water change and a week 1/2 later it got cloudy and the slowly the pH started to crash and water chems have fluctuated (except Nitrite which has remained 0)

PH crash
Water chems=

Nitrate: 10
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: .25
PH: Below 6.0
water is cloudy


I know: Not to buffer b/c my bb is inactive or dead and I don't want to make the ammonia toxic (esp. if it goes up). I know to do small water changes. What else can I do? Help/suggestions?
 
just wondering if the media you use for bio is porous? when not, IME, it is easier to reduce the BB colony during filter cleaning.
I really like seachem matrix for that reason, much better than bio balls. If you have space for adding some matrix to your existing media, I'd suggest it.
A course of seachem Stability kicks in fast for cycling.
If something in your water had changed drastically, it seems like the fish would've been affected by it before killing BB.

sorry, I'm no good about your ph issues :-/ I've seen other florida members post about such fluctuations in the past.
 
Yeah I don't know what's going on.

Luckily it has been over several days that the fluctuations happen so it doesn't seem to have hit the fish to hard, yet (knock on wood). They do show signs of itching though and I imagine they are stressed.

I have an fx5 on hand so I am about to order a bunch of media for it tomorrow and sea chem matrix is on the list. Hopefully they make until I get it set-up. I do have stability but with the pH being so low from my understanding the BB will just stay inactive until the pH raises a bit higher, so I am not sure if I should add it until the pH raises some.

Right now its just the beads in one and the cartridge (like a pool filter one) in the other. I added on an emperor 400 hob tonight as well with cartridges and a wall of bio balls as well to hopefully help.

As for algae killer - nope I haven't added anything though I do have nerite snails to help with brown algae issues (and they are great! but there is a little here and there on the rocks), but I have had them for months now.
 
I Googled the Tampa water quality report just to see where your tap water fell.
Hardness is 170 to 250 ppm and pH @ 7.5-8.2(both vary seasonally), they did not list alkalinity which tells how much buffering capacity the water contains, but pH and hardness suggest a decent buffering capacity.
To me a dropping pH means an acid buildup from either large fish in a small space, too much food (which you suggest, saying it builds up in filters) and substrate and filters not being cleaned out enough (or all the above).
You didn't mention size fish and size tank.
I find water changes every 2 weeks to "not" be enough for my tanks with the buffering capacity of my tap water, ( I try to do 30% water changes every other day, or more in summer)I also need to remove gunk from biological and mechanical media at least weekly, and if I don't vacuum at least every week my pH starts to drop.
I don't like canisters, as they are not user friendly, as far as cleaning gunk out goes. For this reason I have gone the sump route with filter socks, and bio media in easily removable bags. This way with every water change, I easily rinse out gunk from bio media bags, with tank water, and same with filter socks.
With this routine my pH stays stable, but if I slack off, a dropping pH always bites me
in the arse.
 
duanes said:
I Googled the Tampa water quality report just to see where your tap water fell.
Hardness is 170 to 250 ppm and pH @ 7.5-8.2(both vary seasonally), they did not list alkalinity which tells how much buffering capacity the water contains, but pH and hardness suggest a decent buffering capacity.
To me a dropping pH means an acid buildup from either large fish in a small space, too much food (which you suggest, saying it builds up in filters) and substrate and filters not being cleaned out enough (or all the above).
You didn't mention size fish and size tank.
I find water changes every 2 weeks to "not" be enough for my tanks with the buffering capacity of my tap water, ( I try to do 30% water changes every other day, or more in summer)I also need to remove gunk from biological and mechanical media at least weekly, and if I don't vacuum at least every week my pH starts to drop.
I don't like canisters, as they are not user friendly, as far as cleaning gunk out goes. For this reason I have gone the sump route with filter socks, and bio media in easily removable bags. This way with every water change, I easily rinse out gunk from bio media bags, with tank water, and same with filter socks.
With this routine my pH stays stable, but if I slack off, a dropping pH always bites me
in the arse.
Click to expand...

X2
Sounds like your alkalinity has dropped.
 
I'll look into it, that report probabl does not suit me though, I am outside of Tampa and Hillsborough county I am on different water. My water comes from Withlacooche in Pasco County. The pH in the tank after a water change usually sits at about 7.0-7.4 it can vary in between there but never lower.

The filter over a week is clean usually when I start to see the build up its about 2weeks which is why I do 2 weeks. I do check it if it gets build up before the 2 weeks I clean the filter but it typically is fine until about that 2 week point. I still do bi weekly water changes if I do clean the filter before hand. I never had issues in the years its been running up until now and I've been doing it this way a long time. I make sure to syphon out what I see in the tank as well.

The tank is a 150gal and there are 10 frontosa ranging in size from 4 inches to 8 inches (they have been this size range for a few years now. I actually had 12 but sold 2 a few months ago and plan to sell 2 more soon so I have a total of 8). I feed a few times a week and not a ton either. I do wait to make sure the fish eat the food and its not sitting on the floor. I feed them NLS Thera A+ and I do feel like its a reltaivley messy food. I just bought some Omega one pellets and I am gonig to try that out to see if that helps as well.


The two canister have a gen x pcx40 pump that does a max rate of about 1,190gph. There is a UV sterlizer plumbed in as well which I currently have off. I don't have a heater on the tank. The filter cartidage and beads are extremely clean currently and I am keeping an eye on them.

I don't find cansiters to be a pain, I actually perfer them over sumps. I don't have any issues cleaning out my canisters and get everything out fine. I've had sumps, but I am just not a fan of them.
 
It's a bacterial bloom. Basically your tank and filters are cycling again and can take a few weeks to be back to normal. It's not dangerous to your fish. The bacteria multiplies fast so there isn't much you can do until it stabilizes again. This has happened to me a few times. Don't keep cleaning your filters and doing big water changes or the nitrifying bacteria will just keep restarting it's process. This is a pretty normal thing.
 
I can do water changes once a week if that is what I need to change to. I just trying to figure out how to recover it at this point. I am definitely re doing the filtration as well. I still rather mod and use the fx5. If anyone has media suggestions I am ordering today. I was looking at options of using some of these: coarse sponges, ceramic tubes, matrix, biobail, I have purigen and carbon (not using carbon currently). Welcome to opinions I think they are important.
 
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