I don't know what to do-tank crashed..help!

[sibbysibz]

I have a 29 gallon freshwater tank, I have had it since November 07. I had done fishless cycling and then added fish to the tank. Everything was going fine until about 2 weeks ago when I had a horrible PH crash. My KH was down to 0 and my PH hovering under 6.0. I wasn't sure what was going on..but my ammonia had climbed up to.50 from 0 and steadily climbed while my nitrites were 0 and my nitrates 20.

I was told to not overfeed. I only feed my fishes now once a day as opposed to twice a day. I have always done 30-35% weekly water changes and syphoned out gravel every week.
Then I was told that it must be I have a dirty filter, so I took my hang on back of filter and removed the dirty cartridge that was there for two weeks, replaced it and cleaned the filter box out as it was full of gunk. My ammonia kept rising!
I then figured out it could only be the undergravel filter and decided to get rid of it.Well it had nasty amount of junk under it...so I syphoned it out as much as I could and threw away the UG filter.

Now tank is starting to recycle due to my overzealous cleaning...I have 0 nitrates, .50 nitrites and off the chart ammonia. I have added ammono-lock, a lil aquarium salt and have been doing 20% water changes every day but my ammonia won't go down! I'm afraid I'm gonna lose all my fish! Help!

tank specs:
PH:6.0 (thanks to only proper PH)
Ammonia: 4
Nitrites:.50
Nitrates: 0
Temp:75
Fish: 1 otto catfish, 3 danios, 2 gold barbs, 2 mollies and 2 platys,1 gourami
3 neon tetras

[Lotus]

Welcome to the site!

I think that taking out your UGF has disturbed your bacteria.

You'll need to do some larger water changes (more like 60%) to get that ammonia down, and keep adding the Ammo-Lock until things are better. Try to keep both ammonia and nitrites down below 1ppm.

Do you have any idea what cause the pH crash? Had you been doing regular cleaning/water changes until that happened?

[sibbysibz]

Originally Posted by Lotus

Welcome to the site!

I think that taking out your UGF has disturbed your bacteria.

You'll need to do some larger water changes (more like 60%) to get that ammonia down, and keep adding the Ammo-Lock until things are better. Try to keep both ammonia and nitrites down below 1ppm.

Do you have any idea what cause the pH crash? Had you been doing regular cleaning/water changes until that happened?

wow 60%? I better do one tonight then....
I really don't understand what happened...it was going well....I have live plants in it as well and they were striving. I think it was the UGF because even though I syphoned out the gravel very well every week, when I lifted it up 2 weeks ago to get rid of it..there was a massive amount of brown gunk trapped under the plates.

I would do 25%-30% water changes every week, net out the extra food on the surface, then I had a huge PH crash and then my KH dropped to 0. In NY we have soft water but my PH used to be steady at 6.50 at the very least.
Is my tank re-cycling? do I have to wiat this out for another 6-8 weeks again?

p.s. thanks for replying and helping me out

[Lotus]

The tank is re-cycling, but hopefully it will be shorter this time. Sometimes it's only a few days, but it could be longer. The Ammo-Lock will help to try to keep the ammonia in its less poisonous form, so your fish don't suffer.

If you have really soft water, you might want to consider using a little carbonate-based buffer (not a phosphate-based one). You can either use baking soda when you do a water change, or put some crushed coral in a media bag in the filter. Both will increase your carbonate hardness (KH) to help keep the pH stable. There are also commercial products available. I believe Seachem's Alkaline Buffer would be a good choice.

[roark fishies]

You're basically going through a fish-in cycle. Lots of water changes are in order until the cycle is complete. It sucks but can be done. I'm surprised your oto is living through all this since they are so sensitive.

[sibbysibz]

Originally Posted by roark fishies

You're basically going through a fish-in cycle. Lots of water changes are in order until the cycle is complete. It sucks but can be done. I'm surprised your oto is living through all this since they are so sensitive.

the lil otto is a tough cookie..I call him lil Mister T because of that...
even so I don't wanna press my luck...

[sibbysibz]

Originally Posted by Lotus

The tank is re-cycling, but hopefully it will be shorter this time. Sometimes it's only a few days, but it could be longer. The Ammo-Lock will help to try to keep the ammonia in its less poisonous form, so your fish don't suffer.

If you have really soft water, you might want to consider using a little carbonate-based buffer (not a phosphate-based one). You can either use baking soda when you do a water change, or put some crushed coral in a media bag in the filter. Both will increase your carbonate hardness (KH) to help keep the pH stable. There are also commercial products available. I believe Seachem's Alkaline Buffer would be a good choice.

I'm gonna go to the LFS and pick it up with some more ammo-lock. I took out 60% of the water and replaced it with new water.
Here are the specs today:
temp:75
ph:6.4
ammonia: 4.0 down from off the chart
nitrite:.50
nitrate: 0 but I'm gonna go take some gravel from an established tank today to speed up the process, I'm also gonna get another hang on filter that's more powerful too...thanks so much for all the insight!

[sibbysibz]

since my tank is in the process of a re-cycling. I'm curious as to how to proceed without disturbing the natural process. for example,if I keep the ammonia down to 1 and don't let it spike (while still using ammo-lock) will that hinder the nitrite spike that is needed in the cycle process in order to get nitrates?
or do i continue to do 60% water changes, using ammo-lock and amquel..untill i see them both ammonia and nitrite drop to zero?

p.s. so far all fish n plants are a-ok! thanks again for answering my silly questions.

[nrstype]

There are NO silly questions, (however silly answers.. that is another matter I'm sure

Glad to hear your fish and plants are A-OK..

I had this happen once, when the flow from the UGF was halted, and I didn't realize it, the bacteria in my UGF died, AMMONIA HECKFIRE was unleashed, lost all but 3 fish (25 died). One power head had malfunctioned on an uplift tube without me noticing it, and the impeller on my biowheel busted at the same time, (murphy's law).

Long story short, I think vigorous cleaning of the filter, in "Close" combo with the UGF removal, sent your system on reboot. The second cycle should NOT take as long as the first one you had, so don't worry so much about that, but it will take some days to get back to equilibrium.

I recommend using ONE ammonia binder or another. Ammo-lock binds more ammonia than amquel, so I would use ammo-lock. But remember, it is a BINDER, it only converts it to a less harmfull form, but it is still "ammonia" and can still be detected in test kits, AND eaten by the biological bacteria. Dose as directed.

If the ammonia is reducing, reduce the amount of your water changes, continuing large water changes could stress out the fish if done too much, too frequently, when the system is returning to its old self.

Recommendations on feeding... Once ever other day... until your biological filter bounces back. If you are lifting out excess food with a net, you are feeding too much. Tropical fishes stomach's can be about as big as there eyes (give or take). Adult fish do not need to be fed as frequently as juvie fish (not sure if you have grown ones or not.. I'm guessing not though.)

I'm curious, what is the pH of the water you use. You'd be surprised at the pH level of some common city water systems. (Can run from Acidic to Base, just depends where you are sometimes.) If your plants and livestock are happy in that realm, you may not need to do anything drastic with the pH.

good luck with everything kiddo. Stay diligent, the natural process is well under way, and looks as if you may be coming out of the storm, so try to relax a bit, the tank is showing the beginnings of bouncing back.

nrstype

[katarina]

I have had a lot of luck using Seachem's Stability. I just dose the tank for a week and I am good to go.