Help With Discus

[sjolliff]

I did a 25% WC to bring down the ammonia, the male discus has now eaten all the eggs after 48hrs so might take the bog wood out

 

[sjolliff]

Iv taken the wood out, it dint fizz when i put vinegar on on it.
tap ph is 6.8 ph with conditioner is about 6.1?

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

Iv taken the wood out, it dint fizz when i put vinegar on on it.
tap ph is 6.8 ph with conditioner is about 6.1?

Wood won't fizz when you put vinegar on it, only rocks with limestone will, and this is an indicator that it may increase pH

What type of tap conditioner do you use?

 

[sjolliff]

Oh ok well i got it in a test bucket and will test PH 2moz morn

I use seachem prime

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

Oh ok well i got it in a test bucket and will test PH 2moz morn

I use seachem prime

Well if there are still tannins leeching out, of course your pH in the bucket will be lower... Considerably lower as it's a small volume of water compared to your tank. Tannins will run out after a while. If you really don't want them, you can start soaking the wood in a bucket and replacing water.

Not too sure why your water is a lower pH with tap conditioner compared to out of your tap? Are you adding anything else to the water before testing it?

 

[sjolliff]

Easycarbo and TPN+

 

[sjolliff]

Got 0 ammonia this morn, so i dosed TPN+ and easycarbo and gave them a small bit of food which was all gone in 2 mins,
just tested now and got just less of 0.25ppm of ammonia!

iv done several sand vacs plus the cories are kepping the bottom clean, and all deadish looking plants have been removed

why do i get 0 in the morn but after dosing and small feed i get ammonia a few hours later?

im going to do a 50% WC change later

PH still 6.8 from tap then got to 6 once in tank?

 

[sjolliff]

Just done a 35-40% WC now the ammonia is about 0

Still cant find anything or a reason why i have ammonia?!

Im also using seachem primw which says it removes ammonia?

 

[drobbyb]

if your pH is dropping below 6 then it makes sense that you are seeing ammonia. The bacs tend to stop processing ammonia at about pH 6. Seeing as this is a discus tank, I would simply up my waterchanges to keep the pH at an acceptable level.

My 2 cents anyways.

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

if your pH is dropping below 6 then it makes sense that you are seeing ammonia. The bacs tend to stop processing ammonia at about pH 6. Seeing as this is a discus tank, I would simply up my waterchanges to keep the pH at an acceptable level.

My 2 cents anyways.

No I think there is a different set of bacteria that process ammonia/nitrites at a lower pH?

Just done a 35-40% WC now the ammonia is about 0

Still cant find anything or a reason why i have ammonia?!

Im also using seachem primw which says it removes ammonia?

Like I asked before, was there filter media in the bulkhead you replaced? This is probably your source of ammonia...

Prime doesn't remove ammonia, it converts it into a less toxic form. It will still register on tests. Hopefully you are using liquid tests kits too.

 

[snowflake311]

Sounds like a mini cycle. Only time I had a ph crash was during a cycle when I had too much nitrates if your ph gets down to 5 your bio filter will not work well.

If it is a mini cycle you are going to have to do daily water changes to keep it down and it will or should fix it's self. What's your nitrites and nitrates at???

Some bog wood can leak out ammonia. Keep it in a bucket and test the water it is in.

 

[sjolliff]

There is no media in the bulk head on the tetratec EX1200 just the impeller and pump etc.

well today i added no ferts and my ammonia has stayed 0 all day im only feeding the fish once a day now

the water is really cloudy today,

 

[snowflake311]

There is no media in the bulk head on the tetratec EX1200 just the impeller and pump etc.

well today i added no ferts and my ammonia has stayed 0 all day im only feeding the fish once a day now

the water is really cloudy today,

Cloudy water is most of the time due to Bacteria bloom and will fade in a day or so. In fact it's a good thing to see it means things are working them selves out.

 

[sjolliff]

The water is cloudy because the power went off earlier while i was at work and kicked crap out ( i remembered from last time)

That explians the PH drop due to ammonia being processed.

i think the ferts may of caused the ammonia spike but i dont understand why?

 

[lalo99]

When is the last time you cleaned your filters? The nitrifying process does tend to lower the ph. If your filters are too dirty, they won't work properly. If your tap has no ammonia in it, then I would guess your filtration is the problem. Too much crap in the filters will overwhelm them. The excess crap will begin to breakdown and cause ammonia to build up. The water changes are keeping the parameters with reason. I clean my biological filtration as needed (only with tank water or declorinated tap water). My mechanical gets cleaned weekly with water changes. Just so you know. Seachems prime doesn’t really remove ammonia. It actually changes it to ammonium, which is much less toxic. You will get a false reading on an ammonia test. The test doesn’t know the difference between ammonia and ammonium.