GH and high PH VS ammonia NH3

I'm making this simple as possible because I want others to benefit from the problems I experience living where tap water is very hard (GH Cal/Mag 500-600). With our hard water comes high PH of 8.0. In the beginning I would control it with White Distilled Vinegar (WDV) with some success. I later found out that most captive bread fish regardless of original habitat i.e Angels, can adapt to higher PH levels and I have discovered that to be true almost without exception this is true with most captive bread species. I have since been maintaining my tanks at the natural water source PH level of 7.8-8.0. I initially was apprehensive because I know that ammonia NH3 in small quantities is very deadly at high PH levels but never actually experienced ammonia with high PH. After all if you maintain a well established cycled tank why would there be any concern. Well I found out last night when I just happened to wake up 2am and find all the fish in one of my established tanks floating and swimming disorientated and gasping, WTH I thought is going on. Tested the water and I could barely make out ammonia at .1 to .25 PPM, I mean I had to strain to see the slight green on yellow liquid test tint. But why the strong reaction I though? And if this small amount of NH3 is causing the problem how will a water change help at this stage as they are at death door? Sure enough looking at the Toxicity tables .25 ammonia combined with a PH 8 was deadly, I had to get the PH down fast at least 5 points. So I dusted off the gallon bottle of WDV and prepared the maximum dose in 2 gallons of RO for an 80 gallon tank which is 1ml per gallon or about 4 tablespoons. 5 minutes after pouring the dilution PH reading were down to 7.4 PH and to my great relief and almost surprise 15 minutes later all the fish righted themselves and began to swim and breath normally.

Bottom line and by whatever means I will never allow my PH to go above 7.5 again. Almost undetectable levels of deadly NH3 ammonia is simply unacceptable IMO. With a PH of 7.5 ammonia is not toxic until it reaches 1-2 PPM dependent upon temperature between 75-80F. But at least this gives you an early warning when ammonia testing are conducted on a regular basis, I do my ammonia testing weekly and would have probably avoided this episode being able to detect a clear color change in the liquid test kit between .25 to 1 PPM IMO. Thanks for listening.

Well one thing I left out is my very high GH and TDS (900 PPM) which makes the margin for lethality even slimmer. This is because high TDS PPM means less room for oxygen in the water O2 PPM. This I wont control because its too expensive to be buying that much RO to get it TDS down. Instead I use an ion exchanger (water softener) to exchange and reduce Cal/Mag from 550 PPM down to 35 PPM, in exchange for Potassium (500 PPM) which is infinitely easier on the fish. Nevertheless my TDS is still 850-900 PPM which makes dissolved oxygen somewhat difficult to maintain above 5 PPM the minimum. Now throw in toxic NH3 at .25 PPM due to a PH of 8 and you have gasping fish fighting to breath. So like your tank I need to get my tank to a reasonable lower PH of 7.5 which substantially lowers NH3 toxicity (1-2 PPM) compared to a PH of 8 when it becomes toxic at .25 PPM. I believe if I had my tank at a PH of 7.5 at that time of this occurrence I would have woke up to find a normal situation not a deadly one and my weekly test would have picked up the spike early before it became toxic. This all evident by the way my fish rapidly recovered after lowering the PH 5 points, and yes I did use an emergency dose of Prime first with no results and with the fish in that condition I believe a water change would have pushed them over the edge. No water chanage was conducted and the ammonia levels are back down to 0, which I m not surprised as its well documented that ammonia levels always rise at night and drop during the day when bacteria are more active.

My only point here is that given any situation or water conditions its important to consider the strong pivotal relationship between PH and toxic ammonia NH3, it could make a big difference in an ammonia spike emergency. At least it did in my that's all I'm saying.

Although API liquid ammonia test are not exactly accurate its reading of total ammonia is accurate enough to get a good handle on NH3 readings using the Toxicity tables, and although temperature plays a role as you point out, it has no where near the pivotal leverage on toxic NH3 as PH. Iv attached the link for you to read up on should you be interested. While you are unlikely nor is it suggested you make any changes to your parameters, It may come in useful in an emergency which is what my topic was about. As we all know there is no such thing as a perfect aquarium and an ammonia spike in any aquarium is more likely then any of us are usually willing to admit.

http://www.dataguru.org/misc/aquarium/AmmoniaTox.html#ammonia3ppm

jpappy789 said:

I just prescribe to the water change + prime method.

Click to expand...

No argument there and the the normal procedure for me as well when a fish's condition is stable and not in death distress. I was in a position where the fish were in extreme distress swimming with no librium up side down all because of oxygen deprivation from ammonia on the gills. Adding tap water which has almost no dissolved oxygen would have taken too much time and just killed all the fish in that condition, no doubt. So I kept the oxygenated water I already had in the tank, turned up the powerheads and wands on full and dosed the tank with 80 ml of WDV which almost instantainiously detoxified the tank and the fish responded fast enough that it would have suprised anyone. But yes I agree with you that under normal circumstances where ammonia had been detected and where fish were not on deaths door, a 50% water change with a conditioner/detoxifier is the only way to go.