Riyhone Posted November 15, 2008 Report Share Posted November 15, 2008 Hi - I am fairly new to keeping fish, but things were going well, tank had cycled, no ammonia/nitrates etc. I have a 90 litre tank, about 14 cardinals, 4 catfish, 4 clown fish, 2 mollies, 3 plecos, 5 tetras. A few weeks ago, I started getting ammonia spikes after changing a filter. I got a lot of advice, told to change bio noodles to a different type. Anyway, for the last fortnight, I have had to do water changes every day. Ammonia is shooting over 2ppm daily, and even though I ensure neutral pH at water change, the water gets very acidic very quickly. So much so that in the last week, I have noticed it goes off the acidic chart after a few hours. It seems the whole system is getting the wobbles very badly. I went a day without any feeding and no change in this pattern. I know I don't overfeed, if anything I underfeed at the moment. Due to ammonia being present, I have started using ammonia lock as recommended by a fish shop. I wonder if I have managed to kill all the ammonia eating bacteria. I use Stress coat when changing water, and Stability (seachem). Anyway - help! what do I do now? Fish still seem OK but I can't keep doing this every day...I am not touching the carbon filters or Eheim substrat Pro at all. Seems fish shops give plenty of advice but nothing has helped. Why does my water go from pH neutral to off the chart acidic so fast? Why won't the ammonia come under control? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew_W Posted November 15, 2008 Report Share Posted November 15, 2008 have you checked to see if you have any dead fish hiding somewhere roting away? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted November 15, 2008 Report Share Posted November 15, 2008 hmm what kinda filter you got running? how much water are you changing? i'm thinking either, you have too many fish for the filter to handle or when you cycled it you either did it with a lot less fish than you have now (so it's sort of recyling) or you did it with chemical ammonia but didn't use enough. how long's it been set up? ammo-lock will help and water changes for now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spoon Posted November 15, 2008 Report Share Posted November 15, 2008 also test ur tap water to see what u are starting with Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkLB Posted November 15, 2008 Report Share Posted November 15, 2008 and keep in mind that Ammo-lok doesn't remove the ammonia, it converts it to a non toxic form.....tests will still register as positive for ammonia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catfish Posted November 15, 2008 Report Share Posted November 15, 2008 and keep in mind that Ammo-lok doesn't remove the ammonia, it converts it to a non toxic form.....tests will still register as positive for ammonia.This is true, however I e-mailed API out of curiosity a while back and asked them if their (API) brand Ammo-lock was used with the API liquid tester if it would still read positive and they said it would not and would give you your true reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ianab Posted November 16, 2008 Report Share Posted November 16, 2008 I wonder if I have managed to kill all the ammonia eating bacteria. Yes, thats about it. Most of the cycle bacteria live on your filter media, if you have changed it all out then most of your cycle is gone. Your tank is very heavily stocked, even though I'm guessing the fish are still small, otherwise they would be like sardines. What you are doing with the water changes will at least keep your fish alive, and the low pH is a mixed blessing. It's happening because of the ammonia going into the tank, and your water will not have enough hardness to buffer it. The good thing is that ammonia is MUCH less toxic if the pH is low. The bad thing is that cycle bacteria dont multiply as well in low pH, so your cycle is taking longer to recover. Things to do - Keep changing the water. Try and get hold of some ceramic media or something from an established tank, it will have more live bacteria to help get your tank back on track. Keep the feeding level down and the cleaning up. One day wont magically fix things, try half rations for a week and see if that helps. Check the waters hardness, if it's very low that will explain the unstable pH. You may be able to add buffering chemicals to help keep it stable. But remember the ammonia is more toxic if you 'fix' the pH. Tetras, loaches and plecos are OK at low pH anyway. Get a bigger tank, you are going to need one soon if you have Common or Sialfin plecos, and you will need one eventually for the clown loaches. Good luck, I hope you can get things back under control. Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowman Posted November 17, 2008 Report Share Posted November 17, 2008 How long has the carbon filter been in there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael.qian Posted November 17, 2008 Report Share Posted November 17, 2008 agree with above, never change filter or filter media completely, or you'll lose all the bacteria and need to cycle the tank again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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