help -serious ph and ammonia problem

I have been away and a friend was looking after my fish - I have just tested my water in my freshwater aquarium and found that ammonia level is 4.0 and Ph is 4.0 - what can I do apart from a water change. One of my catfish is really distressed - he is rubbing and hanging upside down in the tank - but doesn't look like whitespot[/b]

 

White spot meaning ich right? The ph and ammonia usually is settled with water changes and good water care. Always when having someone take care of your fish show them how to do a check of the water every other day. If you go to your lfs usually you can buy chemicals that balance your levels, for ph there is a chemical called ph down that i have had luck with also there is a chemical for ammonia, when doing water changes add these chemicals in. The ammonia one i would advise ammo-lock or there are chemcials that are for lowering ammonia levels.

 

many thanks for your suggestions - i'll try those :y_the_best:

 

Definitely don't start off using chemical, in this case I think you will only make things worse.

What was the pH before?
What is the pH out of the tap?
What are your readings for nitrIte, nitrAte, and KH?
How long has the tank been set up?
How big is it?
What fish are in it?

My initial guess (other than it being a new, uncycled tank) is either your biological filter crashed for some reason or your friend severely overfed and all the extra food is causing an ammonia spike. The incredibly high levels of ammonia are what caused the pH to go down like that.

For the time being, do several small water changes (10 - 15%) every hour to two to help get the ammonia down. If your pH from the tap is quite a bit higher than the tank's current pH, you don't want to do large water changes and send the fish into shock.

-Chelle

 

(i was away for a month)

ph was 7.5 before
ph from tap is neutral
nitrate and nitrite normal (not sure if my kit tests for kh)
its been set up 2 years - but I set up a new filtration system about 1 year ago and moved some fish to my tank at work after some bad advice caused me to overstock it
it is 100x40x45cms (39x16x18inches)
I have in it:
1 african butterfly fish
4 Clown Loaches - Botia macracanthus
2 Kuhli (Coolie) Loaches - Acanthophthalmus kuhlii
1 upside down catfish
1 Sterba's Cory - Cordydoras Sterbai
2 Bristle Nose / Ancistrus Pleco
1 large angelfish

and there was a Pictus Catfish - but he died last night

i did 2 small water changes last night - is it ok to carry on doing small changes?

 

Sounds like it just crashed because the person taking care of them probably over fed. Just keep up with the water changes. The goal is to get everything back to normal quickly so the fish don't suffer from ammonia & pH burn, but at the same time, you want to do it gradually so they don't go into shock.

-Chelle

 

Hi AC, Chelle is absolutely right. You want to get the tank back to it's normal state as naturallu as possible. The only thing that I can add to that is what I use with every water change. I use Kordons Amquel and Novaqua with my water changes. These buffer the PH and chemicals in the tank and Amquel also removes chlorine/chloramines. The Amquel is really only a temporary fix for the Ammonia. The best course is to remove the Ammonia content through water changes. The frequency of water changes will cause a rapid rise in PH. The Novaqua will buffer the PH so that the fish will not go into PH shock due to the rapid rise in PH. Dosages for both products are 5 ml/10 gallons of water. I am assuming you have already begun your water changes, so I would suggest only using enough of each product for the amount of water you are changing.
EXAMPLE: If you are replacing 10 gallons of water use 5 ml of Amquel and 5 ml of Novaqua. If you are replacing 15 gallons of water use 7 1/2 ml of Amquel and 7 1/2 ml of Novaqua. etc.

 

as \bove although PH lowering and hightening chemicals can be used - which oneswolfsdream mentioned, your meant to do it really slowly altering at 0.5 at a time, but even that slight shift could stress your fish even more and then the stress will polotte your tank even more.

So natural ways are alot better.