ewolfe315

OK I"ve been doing everything by the book. My latest water tests are below.

PH - 6.0 ? It's nearly clear
NH3/NH4 - 0.50
Nitrites -0
Nitrates- between 1 -5, It's not yellow and it's not orange.. It's gold

Now according to all the info I have read, It states if the PH is below 7.0 it's considered ammonium (which is not deadly to fish). The only way I can get an ammonia reading is if my Ph is over 7.0...

Am I correct on this or am I really losing it,LOL... Is Ammonium levels a concern for me or not

It's been over 2 months now and only 1 time did I have a PH at 7.0 and the ammonia readings were at 0, the Nitrites 1.0 and the Nitrates have been a steady 0 to 5 for the past 3 weeks..At one time everything was extremely high except for PH.

Could the cycling process cause the PH to hit 7.0 and then the rest started declining(ammonia, nitrites,nitrates). And now that the Ph has gone down, I'm sitting here with Ammonium and not Ammonia levels.

I'm confused. It's a nicely stocked 55 gallon tank with mainly small community fish except for these 2 Angels I have with only 1 live plant. Been doing frequent water changes, cleaning gravel 1/3 every week, washing out the filter in a bucket of tank water.

John

chickadee

The N3/N4 reading is the ammonia and it is not supposed to be above 0. So you have too much ammonia and need to do a massive water change. The Nitrite being 0 is both good and bad it could mean that your cycle is not as far along as it should be or it could be that it is progressing pretty well but if so you should have an ammonia of 0. The Nitrates of 1-5 make me wonder what the tap water Nitrates are. Some times the tap water contains Nitrates right out of the tap and has a false reading when you test it. If you test you have no Nitrates in your water directly out of the tap then your cycle is doing something but you are still getting a minicycle of some kind for some reason. pH relates to acidic water or alkaline water. Anything less than 7.0 is considered acidic and above 7.0 is alkaline. If it is too much below 7.0 or too much above then it is not good for some fish. Most fist can adjust to a fairly wide rainge of pH though and it is ALWAYS a mistake to buy the adjuster and try to make the pH either higher or lower. It is much better to allow the fish to adjust to the pH of the normal tap water as the pH adjusters are not only not stable but it is terribly hard to get the exact dosage twice and the fluctuaction is much more likely to kill your fish than any thing else.

Test the Nitrate right out of the tap with no chemicals in it and let us know what the readings are please.

Please do at least a 50% water change to take the ammonia down in the tank.

Rose

ewolfe315

Rose,
I just did a test of the Nitrates directly from the tap and it's the exact same as the tank water,goldish color.

I'll be doing another massive water change in the tank shortly and see what happens with the Ammonia.

Thanks

John

BTW the ph and the Nitrites are still the same

PH -6.0
Nitrites -0

Isabella

I don't know if this is what you mean. I have also read that ammonia (and I think nitrite) is less toxic to fish at lower pH and more toxic at higher pH; for example, less toxic at 6.0 than at 7.0, and much more toxic at 8.0 than at 7.0 ... But still, if I had ANY ammonia or nitrite, even if I had a low pH, I'd perform 50% daily water changes until ammonia and nitrite are at zero.

In addition, there is a relationship between pH and nitrate - the lower the pH, the higher the nitrate. So if your pH seems suddenly low, you should always check your nitrate content in the water. High nitrate is NOT good, as is not a very low pH.

ewolfe315

My PH has always been low. It only hit 7.0 one time. My nitrates have been at a stable level no more than 5 for several weeks and the Nitrites at 0. I just completed a water change of 40 gallon and just so happened to find one of the tiny catfish dead inside one of the ornaments.
Maybe this could have caused the ammonia level,I don't know.

But if my PH is consistenly low, how could I combat this dilemna. I don't want to add any chemicals to booster the PH up or do I. Even when I did the test directly from the fawcett on the Nitrates it was the same as the aquarium. When I just completed the water change I used Amquel Plus for the very first time. So I'll check later tonight and see what happens..

Thanks again

John

ewolfe315

O.K. Here we go.. 8 hours later after doing a massive water change useing Amquel Plus I got these readings here:

PH - 6.6
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 0

Finally, I'm crossing my fingers on this and will do another test in 12 hours.. Thank You Gals for all the help

John

Could it have been that dead catfish? I guess the next test will tell..My fish are on a diet tonight,LOL...

chickadee

Any time you have dead material in your tank, be it plant or animal your ammonia will spike. Biological decay brings on ammonia, it is natural and normal so that may indeed have been the problem. I would say you now have the most perfect readings I have seen for a long time. Any fish should be happy and healthy in that environment. NO do not use anything to change the pH it is perfect. Your fish can easily adjust to that! It will be great for them. There is nothing magic about 7.0 except in chemistry and this is not what we are practicing here. This is life and in life your critters are better off learning to adjust to the environment God gives them and they will be happy because it is going to be consistent. Sounds fine to me.

Now go get you some fish...have fun!

Rose