Stats Please Help

[glyndawn]

all i do is clean my pads in the tank water i take out i havnt changed the filter media since ive had it

 

[Dieses Madchen]

Okay, just making sure lol. Big mistakes tha people make are a.) rinsing the filter in tap water, and b.) replacing it.

 

[glyndawn]

the pads get realy gunky the biomax i never touch i just carnt understand why the stats changed from bad to goodish whith out doing anything

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Given you still appear to have toxic water this afternoon, have you done a massive water change (at least 75%), or better yet a complete water swap as if combating "old tank syndrome" (as per my post just after midday)?

 

[glyndawn]

done another 50ltr change

 

[snazy]

Did you add another filter?

 

[glyndawn]

no the 2 i have dont work im looking on internet

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

A 50l change is only ~28% of your 180l, which will have lowered the ammonia reading of 0.25mg/l by ~28%, so you still have ~0.18mg/l ammonia in there i.e. still far from great for your fish...

If you now did a further 75% (125l) water change, you would dilute that ammonia by a further 75%, to a relatively safe ~0.045mg/l.

Now if your filter and its bacterial colony were upto scratch and you did not feed your fish until Tuesday, it would be reasonable to presume that you would get a zero ammonia reading by Tuesday after doing a massive water change.

For the sake of your fish and while you have a little more time to do something about it over the New Year bank holiday period, I would give your fish a completely new tank of water as per my lunchtime post, knowing your fish will be in completely toxin free water afterwards and you can then monitor ammonia reading thereafter to see if you filter is failing to keep up with the amount of food you are giving your fish. At lower but perfectly safe temps (72F), your fish will need less food and will then excrete less ammonia.

 

[Prime Ordeal]

How often and what quantity do you feed your fish?

 

[glyndawn]

every 2 days just a pinch full

 

[Prime Ordeal]

Can you do an ammonia test on your source water without adding anything to it (i.e. no dechlorinator or additives) and let us know the result please?

Also when do you test your tank water? Is it immediately after water changes, just before water changes or any random time?

 

[Prime Ordeal]

A 50l change is only ~28% of your 180l, which will have lowered the ammonia reading of 0.25mg/l by ~28%, so you still have ~0.18mg/l ammonia in there i.e. still far from great for your fish...

That 0.18ppm is total ammonia though. At his pH (7.8) the free ammonia is only about 5% of that, so about 0.01ppm, still not good enough but not as bad as you think. If his ammonia is always 0.25ppm then it's the chronic effect of the free ammonia which is affecting his fish rather than the absolute value, which is relatively low.