low ph high amonia

[x38wrestlersmom]

my test strips are a week old. they are the quick dip.. not sure of the name. i'll get that for u tomorrow.
i only feed my fish flake food, 2 flakes per fish. and they get that every other day to every 3 days..
so not over feeding them. i am using prime,.
i went to the pet store today and had them to do the reading on my water, and i came home and did it again and got the same readings.

 

[OrangeCones]

Do you vacuum your gravel when you do water changes?

 

[x38wrestlersmom]

if i am doing water changes every other day, one day i do, and one day i don't. don't want to disturbe the bacteria to much.. but do to me doing water changes, it isn't to dirty

 

[sue hernandez]

High cost of fish supplies

Hi. I am new to your forumn but when I was reading how you were struggling with the fish store prices, I had to say something. I don't work for the place or don't want to sound like an advertisement but I find online fish stores are a 1/3 off of the price if not more then your local fish store. A really good one that I have been using for years is drsfosterandsmith.com. Again I am not selling you anything, but they are really cheap for fish food, meds, and supplies and filter medias. You can also order fish online through their aquatics.com department. Not all online stores are the same, I find they are the best. Re: high ammonia levels, make sure you do a deep vaccuum in your tank. I have 5 tanks, and my 30 gal tank always seem to have an high amount of ammonia but I was able to turn it around when I would one week thoroughly vaccuum the tank, and not on the same day that you change your filter pad. Make sure you do not do it on the same day. Also with my 125 gal tank I would vaccuum one side one week, the next side the following week, and change one side filter pad one week, and the other the following week, and this routine stopped the rises in ammonia, nitrite and nitrates. I hope this helps. *DRUMMER*

 

[JazzMaster]

Do NOT buy the water test kit with the test tubes and drops. I had that test kit before anything else and it misread my PH level by a long shot, which lead to the death of 4 of my beloved fish. I took a sample of my water to Petco to get it tested, and they used "Quick Dip Test Strip". She used 2 different strips in the same water and they both came up with the exact same results. The strips are easy, efficient, accurate, and quick. On another note, PH is just as important as Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, Alkaline, Chlorine, etc. They all count towards the big picture of a healthy aquarium. My fish have passed away before with safe reading of Ammonia and Nitrate levels, but I high PH level. Don't take anything for granite. There is no such thing as changing the water out to frequently, however there is a such thing as changing TOO MUCH of the water out frequently. A 25% change of water would be fine on a weekly basis, you just have to let the fish produce some of their own bacteria (which is useful for eliminating harmful elements as well).