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Why Does My Ph Run So High?

By Aquaboy on Thursday, February 24th, 2011 | 2 Comments

For whatever reason, the pH in my saltwater aquarium runs pretty high (about 8.6). I was using a pH/alkalinity buffer, but have stopped because it raises the pH. Still, even having not used it in weeks and having done several water changes, the pH stays high. The water I use has a pH of about 7.4, and once mixed with salt it runs about 8.1, however shortly after adding it to the aquarium (about 6 hours), the pH in the tank is back up to about 8.6. Any ideas as to why this is happening? Also, is a standard pH lowering agent from the LFS okay to use on a pretty regular basis to maintain the proper pH? My target is about 8.2-8.4.

High Pulse And Long Nosebleeds?

By Aquaboy on Wednesday, February 16th, 2011 | No Comments

My pulse is always much too fast(80-100bpm while sitting) and I get irregular spontaneous nosebleeds. Does anyone have an answer as to what the reasons could be?
I am 22, fit(I have fat + muscles can almost be seen), I eat greens and meats & a fish here and there, plenty of carbohydrates and I got a massive sweet tooth. I don’t “exercise” but I move and do physical labour often enough it basically keeps me in shape.
I’m ~5,9 (~175cm) and ~176lbs (~80kg; almost 800 stones). So, here’s the deal:
I’ve had spontaneous nosebleeds for about 4 years now in pauses of a few months in between. They literally start without a cause – winter, summer, hard work, studying and today because I opened a door! Today’s bloody mess was about 1 drop per second for about 10 minutes but sometimes it was up to 4 drops/min for 30 minutes. I’ve received my share of hits on my face in my younger days but I’ve never been a quick bleeder. In fact, most of my external cuts dry up in a matter of minutes, it’s just the nosebleeds that don’t seem to stop. What could be causing this?
As for my pulse, my heart is always racing – at the moment it’s 100 beats per minute and as you can imagine I’m sitting down. My position doesn’t really matter, I could be lying down and it would still be more or less the same. I’m a bit sick at the moment(cold or flu) but this should be no cause for it to spike to 130 for about half an hour somewhere during the day(I ate something sweet and some cheese just prior so that could be a reason). Forte record, the other people I know pace between 60 and 34.
I’ve had 3 instances of my chest feeling as if my heart was grinding gears(quite literally, I suspect arithmy). The first time was when I was ~9, the second and third happened years later. In all those cases I was being physically active but it was nothing “out of the ordinary”, less even. I underwent an ECG examination a day or two after my latest gear grinding and aside from my heart being a congo drum everything seemed to be fine – not even the pace was noted though as I said, about 90 lying down.
It’s kinda annoying to have your heart racing or a nosebleed when telling a woman you’re not really that into her. Besides, taste of blood doesn’t usually go well with my lunch. :D
So what is going on? Do I just need more “exercise”? Is it possible my veins are too thin or wide, is cholesterol an option? Is my blood too thin?
I’ve really no idea! Do you?

Really High Nitrates And Nirates. ?

By Aquaboy on Tuesday, February 8th, 2011 | 3 Comments

I have an 80 gallon tank that had a horrible tragedy happen to it… It may not be as bad as I make it sound but recently, my canister filter was horribly clogged and I have an xp3 filter. Which caused the ammonia in my tank shoot to 8.0ppm. The water was very cloudy and all this fish acted sick. My ph level was at 7.6 and my nitrate 0.0 and nitrites at 0. I did a 50 percent water change to clear a lot of the ammonia out of the tank. And used ammo chips to help the emergency. After that, I got my tank filter to work properly again and got everything pretty much back to normal. But then, my tank water got cloudy again about a week later and my ph and ammonia were fine. But my nitrite and nitrate levels were extremely high! Could this be part of the nitrogen cycle since I did a 50 percent water change? And how can I lower them? I want to lower them quickly. BTW. I have 4 south American cichilids. One red Oscar that is about 7 inches. A 4 in jack dempsy a 4 in red parrot and a 5 in geophagus jirpruni. Also a 10 in plecostomus. What can I do? I really don’t want these fish to die. I just did a 25% water change yesterday. Still no improvement on the nitrate and nitrite levels…

Saltwater Tank Ammonia High?

By Aquaboy on Monday, January 31st, 2011 | 2 Comments

I have a 10 gallon sick tank and there is fish in there that were being treated but the days are up, and the ammonia keeps going up and we already did a 25% water change and the ammonia did not get affected by it so it is still high what can i do to keep the ammonia low there are still fish in there.

Why Would All Of The Chemical Levels In My Fish Tank Be High?

By Aquaboy on Saturday, January 22nd, 2011 | 4 Comments

I have a 10 gallon fish tank. I just cleaned it and added fresh water 2 days ago. I added the correct amount of water conditioner to the tank as well as pH balancer and everything is way to high and seems to have gone up since I last tested. The levels are as follows:
Nitrate – around the 40 mark (almost unsafe)
Nitrite – around .5 or 1.0 (unsafe)
Water hardness – 150 (hard)
Chlorine – 0 (good)
Alkalinity – 300 (high)
pH – 7.8 – 8.4 (alkaline)
Also, will the water being hard effect my fish in any way? Should it be soft? If so, how do I make it soft?
Anything will help, thanks!

Why Are My Nitrate Levels In My Fresh Water Fish Aquarium Always So High?

By Aquaboy on Tuesday, January 11th, 2011 | 4 Comments

I have a 29 gallon freshwater tank with 4 fish equaling about 16 linear inches, the tank is 74 – 78 degrees Fahrenheit. My average readings are; .25ppm Ammonia, 0ppm Nitrite, the Nitrates are always above 50ppm, usually 60, but I’ve measured over 80 more than once. When I started the tank the Ph was very Alkaline, more than 8. I have gotten the ph down to about 7.7, but it took me 8 mounths to do it. So if anyone has an idea about lowering the Nitrates or the Ph(besides changing the water), please let me know what’s good.

High Ammonia Levels In A New Cycling Aquarium?

By Aquaboy on Sunday, November 14th, 2010 | 3 Comments

First off, I have three other established aquariums, so I do have a fairly solid back ground of basic fish keeping. And before you ask, the reason I did not use one of these aquariums to give the new aquarium a jump start is because these aquariums have pest snails that I do NOT want to take a chance of introducing snails to this new aquarium.
I have a 55g Freshwater and I am currently doing a fish-less cycle. About 2 weeks ago I added a product by Nutrafin called Cycle. It says it’s a Biological Aquarium Supplement and claims it “immediately establishes save biological aquarium environment” and “allows immediate introduction of fish” . It has instructions to give X dose per gallon of water for three days.
I followed the directions and did water testing on the third day. I have the API freshwater master test kit (Liquid testing kit). Most of the reading were off and the ammonia levels read high, so I did a 25% water change. This did not lower the ammonia levels. I decided it might have just been a bad ammonia spike, so I let the aquarium run with the filters for another few days. The other reading went to normal, but the ammonia was still high. I tried Jungle ammonia clear tabs, and tetra’s ammonia remover product with a 25% water change. STILL no change in the ammonia reading. Let the aquarium run a few more days hoping it just needed some more time. After about two weeks of the aquarium running and adding the bacteria supplement, I decided to do a 50% water change.
That was a couple days ago. My readings are now:
Ph 7.6
Ammonia .50
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
I’m just stumped. The water is also a little cloudy… and the ammonia levels have been high even after water changes. And ideas?
I think I’ve been pretty thorough, but if you need more information…. let me know.

High Ammonia Levels In A Newly Cycling Aquarium. Advice?

By Aquaboy on Saturday, November 13th, 2010 | 4 Comments

First off, I have three other established aquariums, so I do have a fairly solid back ground of basic fish keeping. And before you ask, the reason I did not use one of these aquariums to give the new aquarium a jump start is because these aquariums have pest snails that I do NOT want to take a chance of introducing snails to this new aquarium.
I have a 55g Freshwater and I am currently doing a fish-less cycle. About 2 weeks ago I added a product by Nutrafin called Cycle. It says it’s a Biological Aquarium Supplement and claims it “immediately establishes save biological aquarium environment” and “allows immediate introduction of fish” . It has instructions to give X dose per gallon of water for three days.
I followed the directions and did water testing on the third day. I have the API freshwater master test kit (Liquid testing kit). Most of the reading were off and the ammonia levels read high, so I did a 25% water change. This did not lower the ammonia levels. I decided it might have just been a bad ammonia spike, so I let the aquarium run with the filters for another few days. The other reading went to normal, but the ammonia was still high. I tried Jungle ammonia clear tabs, and tetra’s ammonia remover product with a 25% water change. STILL no change in the ammonia reading. Let the aquarium run a few more days hoping it just needed some more time. After about two weeks of the aquarium running and adding the bacteria supplement, I decided to do a 50% water change.
That was a couple days ago. My readings are now:
Ph 7.6
Ammonia .50
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
I’m just stumped. The water is also a little cloudy… and the ammonia levels have been high even after water changes. And ideas?
I think I’ve been pretty thorough, but if you need more information…. let me know.

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