# What's happening with my water....



## edlut67 (Feb 26, 2007)

Hi,

Since January this year I have a 30 Gallon, low light(1 Wat/gallon), with ferns, moss and crypts, together with BGA which was there 1,5 month ago, coming back from holiday  

Lights: 10am - 21pm, 11 hours daily
ph 6.8
kh 4
gh 6
temp: 27-28 degrees(due to the hot summer months)
DIY CO2, 2 bottles with glass diffuser.
Plain gravel with some laterite.

Weekly approx. 50% water changes. 
Before starting to "fight" this BGA I changed water less frequent and less quantity.

BGA seems still controllable(not for long I guess), weekly remove as much as I can from plants, and mostly from substrate. 

Started with PPS Pro about 3 weeks ago. Am dosing 3 ml macro's as well as 3 ml micros's every morning an 1 hour before lights go on.

Last night(weekly water change-day) I noticed my barbs swimming sideways, some of them up side down. Three of them were really having a hard time. 

Immediately I started changing water.(did approx 80%). The barbs reacted well. This morning they were all there, 2 of them which were worst last night still a bit 'waggling', but much better than last night. Others seemed completely fine again.

I forgot the check Nitrate - as well as Nitrite levels yesterday evening. 

This morning:
Nitrate: (approx.)10ppm
Nitrite: 0

I decided to stop with the PPS Pro. 

What is happening with my water?

Thanks for helping me out on this.


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

If I understand correctly this happened after your water change?

Did you remember to add a dechlorinator?

It does sound as if it's linked to the water change somehow...


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## Bill Weber (Jul 17, 2005)

BGA is usually assoicated with poor water conditions although it sounds like you are doing proper water changes. Have you ever cleaned you gravel? This may help if there is a build up of detris. I age my water in a plastic garbage can and pump it into my tank with a RIO. I do not like adding de-colornators. 

Also, even though you are at 1 watt per gallon, you my want to try cutting down the time your lights are on. Try 9 hours a day for a week to see if that makes a difference. Reduce 2 hours per week. I would not let it fall below 6 hours. I have 3 windows in my fish room which produces more light in the summer months which is my worst period for fighting algae.

If all fails, there is a product called Chemi Clean that I have used in the past. It really works well. Follow directions on the bottle to treat the tank. Wait 3 days and do a 50% water change. Hope this helps some.


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## edlut67 (Feb 26, 2007)

Thanks Laith, my barbs' "swimming sideways and up-side down" was before the water change. I noticed them acting this strange on the day I normally change water. 

Something in the water (before the water change) stresses my fish badly:
- to much CO2? seems unlikely with DYI;

- to much Nitrates, Ammonia ? don't have a big fish load, feed little. Do weekly water changes.
(before changing water I forgot(in the panic and worries for my fish) to check Nitrate - as well as Nitrite levels)

- BGA? is slowly going away;
Bill, started cleaning gravel a couple of weeks ago and the BGA is indeed going away. Will try reducing hours as well.

- PPS PRO? which I started 3 weeks ago. 
Are my ingredients incorrect? (bought the macro's at a pharmacy and the micro's from Aqua Essentials). Am dosing each according the procedures. 

Perhaps the plants I have don't take enough of the nutritions from the water resulting in an overload of macro's and micro's?? I don't know. 

We're now 4 days further and stopped dosing PPS PRO, since. Barbs are doing fine, but really don't know what stressed them that badly.?!


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## cassiusclay (Feb 19, 2007)

are you using dietary supplements in your tank?you said you got the macros at a pharmacy?


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

Maybe an Ammonia spike for some reason?


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## edlut67 (Feb 26, 2007)

Cassiusclay, I bought the K2SO4 (Potassium Sulfate), KNO3 (Potassium Nitrate), KH2PO4 (Mono Potassium Phosphate), MgSO4 (Magnesium Sulfate) from a friend of mine who's a pharmacist. Am not using dietary supplements.

Laith, what could possibly have caused an Ammonia spike? I didn't measure this when I saw my fish dying..

Thanks guys


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## cassiusclay (Feb 19, 2007)

any bubbles from the substrate when you poke at it?if so do they smell like matches or rotten eggs?if not then an ammonia spike but from what would be the question.to me it also sounds like a water quality issue.theres not a dead fish in there maybe?or are they all accounted for? done any thing weird to the tank that may have caused it to lose its bacteria colony?like perhaps treat the BGA with H2O2?
EDIT:has it come back at all?


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## edlut67 (Feb 26, 2007)

Thanks Cassius
Substrate's all fine, there's no dead fish. They all recovered amazingly well. Didn't treat BGA with anything but water changes. It's still there, but I am winning this battle. 

Did some searching on the causes of an Ammonia-spike, but cannot find anything what would have caused this in my tank.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Any time some organic substance decays ammonia is likely to be one of the results - not much but enough to act as a signal to algae spores to get them started growing. So, since it is impossible to avoid having bits of debris decaying in the tank you need to have plenty of growing plants in the tank to quickly use up those bits of ammonia before the algae sense them. You can't measure such small amounts of ammonia that are only there for a short time. That is why having healthy growing plants usually keeps algae from growing. (In my opinion)


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## Carissa1 (Aug 25, 2007)

I second the idea about debris vacuuming. I know bga results from lots of different reasons, but my bga problem didn't go away until I actually removed all my substrate and replaced it. BGA had grown on the rocks etc. and there was just so much dead bga and live bga and debris in the substrate I think it was perpetuating itself. As soon as my substrate was replaced the bga went away and didn't return. Cutting down the lights is a good suggestion too, those plants probably don't need 9 hours/day. I would try 6 at first until the bga gets controlled.

I would also suspect high co2. It can happen with diy, especially if you just changed the yeast and/or temperatures were warmer than usual, etc.


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