Water Quality

[gleco]

Hi,

Need help with my tank water please.

I tested my water today with the Nutrafin Testing kit. The results were:

Nitrite 0.1
Nitrate 20
PH 5.5 - 6.0
Ammonia 0.6 - 1.2

How can i get the PH to rise?

I tested my tap water and the PH of that was even lower about 4.5-5.0 so doing water changes isnt helping as im adding water with a lower PH.

I have a product called Easy balance that stabilizes PH which i put in yesterday along with tap safe after my water change but PH hasnt really changed.

Can i keep adding this to boost PH or anything else i can do?



Thanks in advance

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

How long have you been running the tank, does it have fish in? I'm not sure how to raise PH levels.

However there are a few problems with your water, and testing kit.

Ok get ridd of the test strips (dip stick tests). Get a decent liquid test, API are very good. If you get the master test kit, it has PH on there, as I think your test is innacurate.

Ok second is your ammonia, it needs to be 0, or as close as possible, definatly less that 0.25. Do large water changes to get the levels of ammonia down, once they are down you can start to look at your PH levels, once you have a decent kit. To eliminate the case of incorrect readings.

Hope this helps. And if I've missed anything anyone, please point it out.

Fishy

 

[gleco]

How long have you been running the tank, does it have fish in? I'm not sure how to raise PH levels.

However there are a few problems with your water, and testing kit.

Ok get ridd of the test strips (dip stick tests). Get a decent liquid test, API are very good. If you get the master test kit, it has PH on there, as I think your test is innacurate.

Ok second is your ammonia, it needs to be 0, or as close as possible, definatly less that 0.25. Do large water changes to get the levels of ammonia down, once they are down you can start to look at your PH levels, once you have a decent kit. To eliminate the case of incorrect readings.

Hope this helps. And if I've missed anything anyone, please point it out.

Fishy

Thanks for your reply.

The tank has been set up for a few months and has got fish in it as it replaced a smaller tank.

The test kit is not a dip test its the one with the test tubes and drops of chemicals you add sorry dont know how to describe it.

I done a water change yesterday about 30-40% the tank has a external filter and air stones etc.

Any idea's?

Thanks

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

Hmmm, I'm fairly new myself and not had the need to increase ph. I've heard shells in your filter work. But havn't tried it.

I'm also wondering how you have got a ammonia and nitrite spike. Have you added new fish recently?

And I'm sorry I didn't realise they did liquid tests as well. My apologies

 

[This Old Spouse]

I'd be much more concerned about your ammonia and nitrite levels than your pH.

 

[karin]

Did your pH crash? Was it higher before? As said above before you worry about Ph you need to get the ammonia and nitrites to zero with daily water changes. With positive ammonia and nitrite readings it means you biological filter is not functioning properly. I can't tell if this is recent. It could be that you are going through a mini-cycle. Have you cleaned the tank or the filter recently? If so, how did you do it? Have you added fish recently? Any other changes recently?

Daily water changes
Daily testing
When your ammonia and nitrite are holding at double zeros, test daily and do any necessary water changes.
When your ammonia and nitrite are holding at double zeros for a week, cut testing back to every 3 days and then to once a week. After a few weeks you will know that all is balanced and you can cut back to testing as needed.

Give us more info about your pH. A mini-cycle can cause the ph to drop and so may come back on its own.

Good luck.

 

[gleco]

Did your pH crash? Was it higher before? As said above before you worry about Ph you need to get the ammonia and nitrites to zero with daily water changes. With positive ammonia and nitrite readings it means you biological filter is not functioning properly. I can't tell if this is recent. It could be that you are going through a mini-cycle. Have you cleaned the tank or the filter recently? If so, how did you do it? Have you added fish recently? Any other changes recently?

Daily water changes
Daily testing
When your ammonia and nitrite are holding at double zeros, test daily and do any necessary water changes.
When your ammonia and nitrite are holding at double zeros for a week, cut testing back to every 3 days and then to once a week. After a few weeks you will know that all is balanced and you can cut back to testing as needed.

Give us more info about your pH. A mini-cycle can cause the ph to drop and so may come back on its own.

Good luck.

Thanks for all your replies.

I had a look through all the manuals that came with the testing kit and they were saying that if your PH is out your Ammonia will also be out is that true?

Regarding the nitrite the level of 0.1 is the lowest on the chart they provide so it could be lower than that that was the closest colour it matched.

I added a fish few weeks ago and nothing else has changed got some new ornaments and live plants that cause it?

I done my water change with the gravel cleaner, removing all ornanments rinsing them in the "dirty" tank water and adding new tap with with conditioner to the tank.

Will doing water changes help if the water i'm adding to the tank has a low PH?

Sorry for all the qustions

Thanks

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

Ive not heard that if your ph drops then ammonia will rise.

So as everyone has said don't worry about your ph levels at the moment. Your ammonia is more harmful to the fish. Far more harmful!

I would suggest doing a full 80-90% water change to bring down the ammonia levels to less than 0.25ppm.

Once your ammonia and nitrites are 0 for a full 7 days then start looking at you ph levels

 

[gleco]

Ive not heard that if your ph drops then ammonia will rise.

So as everyone has said don't worry about your ph levels at the moment. Your ammonia is more harmful to the fish. Far more harmful!

I would suggest doing a full 80-90% water change to bring down the ammonia levels to less than 0.25ppm.

Once your ammonia and nitrites are 0 for a full 7 days then start looking at you ph levels

Thanks again for your quick replies.

Will doing a big water change like 80% be ok for the fish?

Also is it possible for the fish to "get used" to the ammonia levels? As doing research they say the fish would be gasping for air not eating etc and the fish are showing no signs of of anything like that!

Thanks again

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

My LFS siad the do acclimatise but I dont beleive it. It causes long term health problems.

Doing a large water change is far less stressful than the fish swimming around in toxic water.

 

[Tolak]

Which species in particular are you keeping? Water hardness is of bigger concern than pH, in you situation the biggest concern is the ammonia level. Do the large water changes to bring the ammonia level down, don't worry about pH at this point.

Another point worth considering is that ammonia is less toxic at lower pH levels. Let me look back at some previous topics, there are a few good ones in reference to ammonia & pH.

 

[gleco]

Which species in particular are you keeping? Water hardness is of bigger concern than pH, in you situation the biggest concern is the ammonia level. Do the large water changes to bring the ammonia level down, don't worry about pH at this point.

Another point worth considering is that ammonia is less toxic at lower pH levels. Let me look back at some previous topics, there are a few good ones in reference to ammonia & pH.

Again thanks to everyone for the replies.

I have various fish in the tank including clown loaches, congo tetra's, a pleco etc.

I will do a big water change tonight and test the water again and hopefully get water quality sorted.

Thanks again