What to do about rising ammonia and pH levels in fish tank?
I have a 10gal tank with 6 small goldfish I bought last Monday (each about an inch long) with an Aquaclear filter and an air pump running all the time. 2 died, one this past Wednesday and one this past Saturday, drifting feebly before inevitably floating to the top. I went to the pet store numerous times to get the water tested and buy solutions offered to me by the staff– ammonia removers for the filter, pH regulators, pH reducers, whatnot. I did a minor water change over the weekend.
Yesterday I tested the water I was using for a 50% water change and the pH was a 7 and ammonia was 0. After I added in the necessary conditioner and the like, I performed the change and tested the tank water several hours after. Ammonia looked to be about 0 and the pH 7ish.
Everything seemed fine until i noticed today one of the goldfish drifting and beginning to float. i tested the water and the pH was a little higher maybe 7.2ish and the ammonia was ridiculously high like 3-4. I immediately added the pH regular and the Nite-out II (ammonia remover) and am hoping for the best at this point.. Honestly im at my wits’ end, it genuinely bothers me that my fish are slowly dying off one by one and it seems like no matter what treatments i buy, it’s futile.
I’ve had fish before that lived for 10 years before succumbing to old age and I haven’t changed a thing in how I take care of my fish. I never had a pH or ammonia problem before. I only feed my fish once a day and only as much as they can eat in a minute.. Someone please help me.
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Well a 10 gallon is kinda small for them and that amount of goldfish will produced a lot of waste causing the ammonia to rise. (goldfish produced a lot of waste btw) Daily water change would lower the ammonia level IMO the smaller the tank you have the more you have to do maintainace.
First off, about the PH. PH changes are common throughout a 24 hour cycle. PH changes of 0.2 are ok for most fish within a 24 hour period.
Second. Do you have gravel in the tank, and if so, is it new? If it is new, then you have too many goldfish to start the tank. There would be no beneficial bacteria in new gravel. It has to form on it’s own and you should only start with about one to two goldfish to cycle your tank. When I say cycle, I mean nitrogen cycle. Basically, the ammonia will spike to 10 on most test kits while cycling. After about a week and a half (from when you placed fish in the tank), it will start to come down, and Nitrite will start to spike. After this, Nitrite will go down and Nitrate will build up.
If you have new gravel, then you have too many fish for the tank. In fact, 6 goldfish are too many fish for a 10 gallon tank. Goldfish need around two gallons of water per one inch of goldfish. Many goldfish grow to at least six to 12 inches. Fish do not grow to the size of a tank. They simply start to have the growth stunted by the amount of chemical in the water.
Quit changing the water and let the beneficial bacteria form and do its thing. You are likely going to lose more fish. To help with ammonia, use ammolock. Unfortunately, not too much helps with Nitrites. By changing the water, you are only allowing your current fish to suffer longer.
Less fish for longer periods of time help out.
Throw away the pH kit, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s between 6 and 8.
As for the ammonia, that level is quickly fatal. Start changing the water, probably about 90% of it to get the level safe. Then keep changing the water until you re-home all but one of the fish.
While the tank could probably support 10 small fish temporarily, IF it was cycled and fully established, when it’s new it has no natural bacteria to break down the waste ammonia that all fish (and especially goldfish) produce. This ammonia build up and poisons the fish.
But changing the water for fresh stuff, and reducing the number of fish the ammonia buildup will only be low, the bacteria you need will eventually grow and the fish will survive.
Next problem is that a healthy goldfish will quickly outgrow a 10gal tank, but thats a problem for later.
Right now, too many fish in a new (and small) tank.
Ian
All fish are not like this, Goldfish are renowned for giving off very high amounts of ammonia.
here is your problem:
6 small gold fishes in 10 gallon, they produce so much waste and there is no way you will be able to reduce the ammonia, you really want to reduce the ammonia then reduce the gold fish at least to 2. stop messing with PH, PH has nothing to do with ammonia. you will actually kill the fish by messing with the PH.
solution for you:
add some live plants, they will help to reduce ammonia and nitrate. if not that then reduce your fish to 2 of them. its also important that your filter is fully cycled with enough bacteria to fight ammonia, which i doubt isn’t completely cycled. try changing 10% water every 2 days might help (give this a try)
here is a common method which i apply, 1 gold fish produce more or enough waste than 10 neon tetras compared. so even if you had 20 neon’s in that 10 gallon tank you will less likely to face ammonia problems, again this also depend on how good the filtration system is.
right now your fishes are the main cause of ammonia and it will keep going up no matter what you do, you can get away with changing water, but again this is temporary solution.
You need to cycle the tank. Those that have or have had existing systems sometimes forget about the new tank syndrome when picking the hobby back up, or starting a new tank, because it has been many years since we went through it. Research “new tank syndrome” and “aquarium nitrogen cycle” and you will get a lot more information to refresh your memory.
Seachem Stability is a product that will help jump start the biological filter, and it is much better than most the garbage you have been adding thus far. Also, there is a product that can be added to the filter called “NitraZorb” which is effective in helping fish live through the new tank syndrome. Small daily water changes are much better than any product you have used thus far, and are a free way of fixing the issue.
Don’t wast another dime on pH products. Ammonia will increase pH. Fix the ammonia issues and pH will fall into place.