pH and ammonia spike

[Cbass]

Hi all. I had a huge ph spike with an ammonia spike this afternoon and am trying to learn from it. Yesterday I did a 20% water change. Parameters after were:

ph-7.6
Nitrates:0
Ammonia:0.25ppm (my tap has 0.5ppm)
Nitrates: 20ppm
Kh/Gh: 3 and 6 respectively 

This morning ph was fine and ammonia was slightly below 0.25. This afternoon it skyrocketed. Ph hit 8.8 and Ammonia 1 ppm.  I did an emergency water change and the levels are back to where they were yesterday. 
 

Ideas? Note, I did use an acid buffer to treat my tap yesterday as my municipal water company changed our source water to a higher ph level. 
 

 

[Zac]

On 5/24/2022 at 10:11 PM, Cbass said:

Hi all. I had a huge ph spike with an ammonia spike this afternoon and am trying to learn from it. Yesterday I did a 20% water change. Parameters after were:

ph-7.6
Nitrates:0
Ammonia:0.25ppm (my tap has 0.5ppm)
Nitrates: 20ppm
Kh/Gh: 3 and 6 respectively 

This morning ph was fine and ammonia was slightly below 0.25. This afternoon it skyrocketed. Ph hit 8.8 and Ammonia 1 ppm.  I did an emergency water change and the levels are back to where they were yesterday. 
 

Ideas? Note, I did use an acid buffer to treat my tap yesterday as my municipal water company changed our source water to a higher ph level. 
 

 

Definitely add crushed coral or a wondershell to increase KH. Low Kh can bring Ph crashes. As pH increases, so does toxicity of ammonia. Also if your tank is improperly cycled that can lead to an ammonia spike 

[Fish Folk]

What size tank is this?

What pH measurement method are you using? (e.g. API titration, test strips, etc.)

One thing to try is to use a control  -- maybe something like RO water -- to be sure your testing measurements are accurate. Every time I run into something really wide of normal parameters, I always test twice.

Have you tried resting your tap water and then testing it to see what your parameters are after 24 or 48 hrs?

The acid buffer sounds risky. Perhaps it dipped the levels into an acceptable zone, but then the actual tap water buffer muscled it back up, raising your pH?

[Cbass]

I was thinking about crushed coral. My tap has a kh of around 6 but after a week in my planted tank it drops to 3. 
 

Tank should be cycled as it’s been about 5 months but I guess these things happen. 

[Cbass]

On 5/24/2022 at 7:19 PM, Fish Folk said:

What size tank is this?

What pH measurement method are you using? (e.g. API titration, test strips, etc.)

One thing to try is to use a control  -- maybe something like RO water -- to be sure your testing measurements are accurate. Every time I run into something really wide of normal parameters, I always test twice.

Have you tried resting your tap water and then testing it to see what your parameters are after 24 or 48 hrs?

The acid buffer sounds risky. Perhaps it dipped the levels into an acceptable zone, but then the actual tap water buffer muscled it back up, raising your pH?

20 gallon long and I use the API master test kit. Yes, I usually let the tap sit. Usually settles at a ph of 8.0 and the ammonia stays the same. 
 

I have RO but I was trying not to push the kh and Gh lower. Definitely not going to use the buffer again. Would rather have a stable higher ph than crashing. 

[Fish Folk]

On 5/24/2022 at 10:29 PM, Cbass said:

20 gallon long and I use the API master test kit. Yes, I usually let the tap sit. Usually settles at a ph of 8.0 and the ammonia stays the same. 
 

I have RO but I was trying not to push the kh and Gh lower. Definitely not going to use the buffer again. Would rather have a stable higher ph than crashing. 

Sounds good.

What kind of fish are you keeping / looking to keep?

[Cbass]

Tank is stocked with neons, otos, ghost shrimp and 1 betta. Before this last water change the tank was really stable including my nitrate levels (steady at 20 ppm for almost 3 weeks)

One thing to mention. Today way a really hot day. Not that my house gets super warm but the outside temps were 10 degree’s warmer from yesterday. My tank temp is usually 77 but it did get to 79 when I got home. 

[Brian]

Maybe I missed this….  How old is the tank?  How long has the tank been setup and how long have fish been in the tank?  How old is the filter and media in it?  Do you use substrate?  What kind?  When testing, was it before a feeding?   Feeding the fish and testing 30-45 minutes afterwards you can see a little spike.  On a newly setup you can test right before feeding and then an hour afterwards and then again right before next feeding.   
Good Luck 

[Cbass]

@Brian Tank is almost 5 months old along with the filter media. It's a medium planted tank with ADA Amazonia II as the substrate, no cap. The filter media is coarse foam (2 kinds from Fluval I have a 107) Fluval biomax (1.5 trays full), and then a small bag of polyfill as filter floss. No carbon. I feed first thing in the morning at 7am. The test was run at 3pm in the afternoon. When my ph vial turned purple, I knew something was wrong. 

I test that tank at least every 3 days since my Kh is typically 3-4. The only thing that I can think of is that a fish died. I may have lost 1 otto (hard to find since they like to hide). I did lose a small nerite this morning, but I think something was already wrong with it since it didn't want to move from the top of the tank for almost a week.

This morning, all the readings are back to normal, including Ammonia (it's 0 now). 

Edited May 25, 2022 by Cbass