Aquarium Levels--needing Feedback

[Sunam]

I just got the API master test kit and tested all my levels. We've had a rash of fish dying lately, part of which was due to a malfunctioning heater. I think the issues started before that, though. According to the strips I was using earlier, the only thing off was pH which has been consistently low. With the liquid testers, here's the scoop:
pH 6.4
Ammonia 0
Nitrite .50
Nitrate 10

From what I've read, I know they can adjust to pH levels as long as they are consistent but my livebearers haven't laid fry in 4 months. Could that be due to the low pH? How do I get it up to 7.0? Also, how do I lower the nitrite levels?

Here are my tap water levels:
pH 7.8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

 

[-SPB-]

There's got to be something in your fish tank that is lowerinf the PH. For it to go from 7.8 to 6.4 is a bit of a swing for your fish to tolerate. What sort of decor have you got in the tank. Rocks, wood plants, gravel etc.

Also the nitrite is high. Is the tank cycled??? You may want to do some water changes to keep that down until it stays at 0.

 

[Sunam]

There's got to be something in your fish tank that is lowerinf the PH. For it to go from 7.8 to 6.4 is a bit of a swing for your fish to tolerate. What sort of decor have you got in the tank. Rocks, wood plants, gravel etc.

Also the nitrite is high. Is the tank cycled??? You may want to do some water changes to keep that down until it stays at 0.

My 3 year old son dumped about 3 weeks of food in there yesterday and I've got to do a change today. I'm guessing that's GOT to do something to levels! But, the problem has been going on for some time now. I have aquarium gravel in there and artificial plants and one of those artificial resin(?) logs. Nothing that should affect the pH, do you think?

When I do the change today, which, if any of the following treatments should I use:
AquaSafe
Nutrafin Cycle
EasyBalance

Also, should I do the gravel vac? I'm guessing there's plenty down there that needs to go with all that food but also know it can stir things up a bit. What do you think?

 

[-SPB-]

I would definitely do the gravel vac, I always do one at least once a week. With regards to the chemicals, I would just use the AquaSafe to remove the chlorine etc from the tap water before you put it in the tank.

Can't see any of the decorations you have in the tank lowering the PH. Are they all specifically designed for aquarium use???

 

[pippoodle]

just a couple of questions hun

how often do you perform water changes?
when did you last rinse the filter in tank water?
what size is the tank?
what filter is on the tank?
temp?
what stock is in the tank?
how often and what do you feed the fish? - excluding yesterday lol


Some quick Advice - might be able to add more when the above questions are answered

DO NOT feed the fish for 2 days let the water catch up after the food accident yesterday - they'll be fine
you should be doing a gravel vac every week with the weekly water change 30-40% replacing with dechlorinated tap water

you dont need to use nutrafin cycle ---- totally useless and a waste of money -

STOP using the easy balance as this affects ph

FROM bottle
# Stabilises pH and KH (carbonate) levels to minimise chemical changes in water quality and prevent toxic levels of acidity
# Reduces phosphates and nitrates biologically to prevent excessive algae build-up
# Visible nitrate-removal granules quickly disperse and sink to the aquarium floor, where they are most effective

all you need to add is the aquasafe
when you run out of it get tetrapond aqua safe - you only use half to 1ml for each 10 litre bucket

Do a 50% water change today
test your water tomorrow if it still shows nitrites then do a 30% change tomorrow

 

[Sunam]

just a couple of questions hun

how often do you perform water changes?
when did you last rinse the filter in tank water?
what size is the tank?
what filter is on the tank?
temp?
what stock is in the tank?
how often and what do you feed the fish? - excluding yesterday lol


Some quick Advice - might be able to add more when the above questions are answered

DO NOT feed the fish for 2 days let the water catch up after the food accident yesterday - they'll be fine
you should be doing a gravel vac every week with the weekly water change 30-40% replacing with dechlorinated tap water

you dont need to use nutrafin cycle ---- totally useless and a waste of money -

STOP using the easy balance as this affects ph

FROM bottle
# Stabilises pH and KH (carbonate) levels to minimise chemical changes in water quality and prevent toxic levels of acidity
# Reduces phosphates and nitrates biologically to prevent excessive algae build-up
# Visible nitrate-removal granules quickly disperse and sink to the aquarium floor, where they are most effective

all you need to add is the aquasafe
when you run out of it get tetrapond aqua safe - you only use half to 1ml for each 10 litre bucket

Do a 50% water change today
test your water tomorrow if it still shows nitrites then do a 30% change tomorrow

how often do you perform water changes? I try to do it once a week but it sometimes goes two
when did you last rinse the filter in tank water? This doesn't sound like something I'm doing. Tell me more
what size is the tank? 30 gallon
what filter is on the tank? a Whisper power filter
temp? 76-78
what stock is in the tank? Now that we've had the die off: 2 black skirt tetras, 4 platy fish, 5 glo fish/danios, 1 lone guppy, 1 lone molly, 1 dwarf gourami, 1 cory cat and 2 snails. Much to my son's chagrine, I'm not adding anymore fish until we get things balanced. Open to suggestions! But that's another post entirely!
how often and what do you feed the fish? - excluding yesterday lol We feed morning and night and try to mix it up. Mostly flake food and dried blood worms with occasional algae pellet for the cory. About once a week, I do the frozen bloodworms.

 

[Sunam]

After doing about a 30% water change with the gravel vac and adding only dechlorinated water about 4 hours ago, my pH is at 7.0 and my nitrites are at 0. I'll see what they are in the morning but it already sounds better than it was!

 

[pippoodle]

you should only be feeding the fish once a day at the most
and only what they can eat in 2 mins
if there is any excess food left over -by mistake then remove it immediately

my fish get fed once a day some tanks every other day
but all have a 1 fasting day a week no matter what



IS it the whisper 30 ?

when you do your next gravel vac / water change - take the filter apart and rinse the sponge or whatever is in there in the bucket of tank water you have just removed from the tank , then replace it back in the filter

i would look at upgrading the filter to a fluval 3+ or u3 in the future a lot easier to maintain - fluval 3+ are pretty cheap now as they are the old model replaced by the u3

when you have the money put the new filter in the tank and run both beside each other for 4-5 weeks then remove the whisper filter

fluval 3+ will filter the tank about 7 times an hour

go for the fluval 4+ and get 10 x per hour filtering

 

[Sunam]

you should only be feeding the fish once a day at the most
and only what they can eat in 2 mins
if there is any excess food left over -by mistake then remove it immediately

my fish get fed once a day some tanks every other day
but all have a 1 fasting day a week no matter what



IS it the whisper 30 ?

when you do your next gravel vac / water change - take the filter apart and rinse the sponge or whatever is in there in the bucket of tank water you have just removed from the tank , then replace it back in the filter

i would look at upgrading the filter to a fluval 3+ or u3 in the future a lot easier to maintain - fluval 3+ are pretty cheap now as they are the old model replaced by the u3

when you have the money put the new filter in the tank and run both beside each other for 4-5 weeks then remove the whisper filter

fluval 3+ will filter the tank about 7 times an hour

go for the fluval 4+ and get 10 x per hour filtering

Very interesting. The overwhelming majority of what I have read has been to feed 2-3 times/day but like you said only what they will eat in a couple of minutes. Hmmmm....I'll switch to the once a day with a day of fasting.

The Whisper is 20-40 I believe.

 

[pippoodle]

you should only be feeding the fish once a day at the most
and only what they can eat in 2 mins
if there is any excess food left over -by mistake then remove it immediately

my fish get fed once a day some tanks every other day
but all have a 1 fasting day a week no matter what



IS it the whisper 30 ?

when you do your next gravel vac / water change - take the filter apart and rinse the sponge or whatever is in there in the bucket of tank water you have just removed from the tank , then replace it back in the filter

i would look at upgrading the filter to a fluval 3+ or u3 in the future a lot easier to maintain - fluval 3+ are pretty cheap now as they are the old model replaced by the u3

when you have the money put the new filter in the tank and run both beside each other for 4-5 weeks then remove the whisper filter

fluval 3+ will filter the tank about 7 times an hour

go for the fluval 4+ and get 10 x per hour filtering

Very interesting. The overwhelming majority of what I have read has been to feed 2-3 times/day but like you said only what they will eat in a couple of minutes. Hmmmm....I'll switch to the once a day with a day of fasting.

The Whisper is 20-40 I believe.

On the containers of food and all food sellers manufactorers will tell you to feed 2-3 times a day - cos they want you to use the food up and buy more

i also feed my fish cooked de-shelled peas once a week to keep them regular - they enjoy a bit of veg

 

[Sunam]

you should only be feeding the fish once a day at the most
and only what they can eat in 2 mins
if there is any excess food left over -by mistake then remove it immediately

my fish get fed once a day some tanks every other day
but all have a 1 fasting day a week no matter what



IS it the whisper 30 ?

when you do your next gravel vac / water change - take the filter apart and rinse the sponge or whatever is in there in the bucket of tank water you have just removed from the tank , then replace it back in the filter

i would look at upgrading the filter to a fluval 3+ or u3 in the future a lot easier to maintain - fluval 3+ are pretty cheap now as they are the old model replaced by the u3

when you have the money put the new filter in the tank and run both beside each other for 4-5 weeks then remove the whisper filter

fluval 3+ will filter the tank about 7 times an hour

go for the fluval 4+ and get 10 x per hour filtering

Very interesting. The overwhelming majority of what I have read has been to feed 2-3 times/day but like you said only what they will eat in a couple of minutes. Hmmmm....I'll switch to the once a day with a day of fasting.

The Whisper is 20-40 I believe.

On the containers of food and all food sellers manufactorers will tell you to feed 2-3 times a day - cos they want you to use the food up and buy more

i also feed my fish cooked de-shelled peas once a week to keep them regular - they enjoy a bit of veg

Oh yeah--we do give deshelled peas to the coldwater goldfish tank because it is the all time remedy and preventative for swim bladder!! How do you do it for the smaller, tropical fish?

 

[Sunam]

24 hours later and levels are all great!! Thanks a bunch! I've learned a lot with this episode.

 

[Sunam]

One more celebration: I thought my black skirt tetras were goners. They had gone all silver and were just kind of ticking in the top corner of the tank. Within a couple of days of getting the levels and temp right, they are back to black and swimming happily!

Now if we could just get the platys to drop fry, we'd be in fish heaven!

Thanks!

 

[waterdrop]

This sounds like a thread with a happy ending!

Just wanted to back up pip's feeding recommendations. I feed my fish just like pip described. Putting in food 2 and 3 times a day and feeding bloodworms could definately be building up some excess debris.

With your tap and tank pH levels and what you've described, I would go even farther to say that a good solid regimen of 50% weekly water changes that are done with a good gravel clean would go a long way to maintaining or even expanding on the good results you've already witnessed! People who have no problems with ammonia or nitrates in their tap water and who have a nice high pH (like your 7.8) but are having problems with pH dropping down (like your low 6's) are in a perfect position to just increase the percentage of the weekly water change. This nice big refresh of dechlorinated water will probably bring with it some CaCO3, which will help the fish feel less osmotic pressure change and will help the pH be a little more stable hopefully. And being as regular as possible with changes will be a good thing, even if it means a little more work on a weeknight after a missed weekend.

~~waterdrop~~