Well the fish are starting to die! I am out of ideas

[Jeffd1979]

I am really at a loss here.. I don't know what to do.. I have had my 37 gallon for about 5 months now.. for the last 2 1/2 months i have been battling high ammonia levels.. they were at 0 ppm until one day the nitrates and nitrites spiked up real high.. ammonia was fine... 2 days later they were fine and the ammonia spiked up to about .6ppm and has never been below .4ppm since then.. I change the water weekly at least 25% change.. i have tried changing 20% a day for a week.. stays the same.. I tried a 75% water change and the next day the ammonia was right back up there at about .4 ppm... about a month ago i purchased a emperor 400.. had a 280 before... I used the same biowheel and filter so the bio should have still been there.. i vaccum the gravel every time i change water... there is nothing rotting in there.. last water changed i did a 10 gallon water change and used distilled water... My ph has also tanked and is at about 6.0... i put in some ph 7.0 powder 4 days ago but that has not helped at all.. I took a sample to my fish store and my test kits are accurate... I can't figure out what is causing this..

I have recently lost a dwarf goromi (sp?) and an angel fish..

I currently have 2 baby angels and 2 small cory cats in there.. thats all... My tap water ph tests 7.5 and there is no ammonia out of the tap..

I don't know what to do next except get rid of the tank

 

[OrionGirl]

Chlorine/chloramine treatment?

 

[bortsamson]

almost sounds like a cycle again.
or the cycle never started/got a chance to finish
how much do u feed?
recent changes in your cities water supply?
distilled water aint that great to use, it doesnt have the same buffering capacity of...well...regular water, mind you, I could be talkin out of my, heh, I know its some form of water that can cause major PH crashes.
Those PH UP/DOWN/7.0 chemicals, unless you need them for specific reasons, breeders and such, I would steer clear. I used them for a while back and got major algae booms, which the otos loved dearly, but made the tank unsightly. But I am getting off topic
If you are treating for chloromine, are you sure that ur test kit is getting readings from the total ammonia? The only stuff u need to worry aboot is the free ammonia, thats the deadly stuff.

 

[Jeffd1979]

I use Aqua safe every time i do a water change..

i feed once every 3 days.. i don't know what else i can do to stop this

Havn't noticed any sig changes to the city water

 

[bortsamson]

aquasafe eliminates chlorine and only BREAKS the chlorine+ammonia bond in chloramine. So then the ammonia is free to burn your poor fishes. You need somethin like Amquel, and I think Prime makes some good stuff too. Those two are the only ones that take care of the ammonia after the bond is broken.
Worth a shot no?

 

[Jeffd1979]

Originally posted by bortsamson
aquasafe eliminates chlorine and only BREAKS the chlorine+ammonia bond in chloramine. So then the ammonia is free to burn your poor fishes. You need somethin like Amquel, and I think Prime makes some good stuff too. Those two are the only ones that take care of the ammonia after the bond is broken.
Worth a shot no?

Where can i get that.. i use ammo lock.. not sure if that is the same kinda stuff..

 

[bortsamson]

ammolock and other chemical filtration stuff, I just dont like it.
Amquel should be available where you buy ur aquasafe.
It converts ammonia into ammonium, which is harmless to fish.
I havent had much luck with LFS having amquel, usually the chain stores like Petsmart, Petcetra, Petco, Pet(insert quirky gimmick)

 

[lmvt]

I am still trying to learn the minimum about aquariums but I think the 10G destilled water change is not a good ideia.

Destilled water has only H20, kh is zero. When you do that change you are reducing the kH of your aquarium by at least 3/4 (in one go), pH and probably many other parameters change accordingly. Maybe that is why your pH is going down.

If you have always being doing destilled water changes than you may just have a very low kh, ph and a loss of many microelements essential for the aquarium. That may kill the nitrificating bacteria.

Luis

 

[frogguy1]

Amquel and Prime are in my opinion the best chems out there you can buy. I use them with my freshwater and saltwater aquariums.

 

[Jeffd1979]

Originally posted by lmvt
I am still trying to learn the minimum about aquariums but I think the 10G destilled water change is not a good ideia.

Destilled water has only H20, kh is zero. When you do that change you are reducing the kH of your aquarium by at least 3/4 (in one go), pH and probably many other parameters change accordingly. Maybe that is why your pH is going down.

If you have always being doing destilled water changes than you may just have a very low kh, ph and a loss of many microelements essential for the aquarium. That may kill the nitrificating bacteria.

Luis

I have only used the distilled water once and the ph tanked before i did the change with the distilled water..:sad