# Ammonia and PH help needed.



## DJDeezell (Jun 23, 2008)

Hey guys. I have a problem i cant seem to get solved. I'm a newbie at the aquarium thing and I have a 20 gallon and a 75 gallon. In my 20 gallon i have 3 small gold fish and in my 75 i have 6 1inch rbp and 2 chinese algae eaters. I did a water change on both but i cant get the ammonia levels in the 75 down. Right now they went back up to .40 and the PH is 7.4 while in the 20 gallon the ammonia is at 0 and the PH is at 6.8 and they both have the same water source. I cut down on feeding (as i found in other threads here) did changes but i can't seem to get the 75 gallon under control. Also i came out to go to work a couple days later and the 20 gallon was extremely cloudy but the 75 was crystal clear. By the time i got back home from work the 20 gallon had cleared up quite alot. now the 20 is a lil hazy and so is the 75. on the 20 i have a Aquaclear 150/30 and on the 75 i have an aquaclear 150/30 and an aquaclear 500/110. I keep the water in the 75 at 80 degrees. What should i do?


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## Big-Kev (Mar 29, 2008)

How long have your tanks been up and running? Did you cycle the tanks?

To reduce the ammonia levels you'll have to do more waterchanges. If your tank isn't cycled then you will have to keep doing waterchanges to keep levels in check.

Test the ph and ammonia levels of your tap water, if your tap water has trace amounts of ammonia then you'll have to do even more waterchanges to reduce ammonia levels. Knowing the ph level in your tap water will help figure out which tank (or both) is changing ph levels.

The difference in ph levels could be caused by something in the tank, for example piece of wood will lower ph levels and some rocks or substrate can raise ph levels. 
The ph reading in each of your tanks is fine as long as the numbers are steady, you don't want fluctuating readings.


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## DJDeezell (Jun 23, 2008)

I think i cycled it. I had it up an drunning filters going and eveyrthing in it with 5 guppies for like a month or so before i actually got my rbps. I'll do more frequent water changes and test the tap water. The PH levels in both tanks stays at a constant even with water changes. The ammonia in the lil tank is at 0 but the big tank is just not happening. and on a side note, I feed twice a day and they ate 4 of the 5 guppies and when i got up yesterday for work i couldnt find 2 of the rbps, so now i am down to 4.... i work 8:30 am til 7 pm so getting three times a day is kinda hard for me. but 2 of them got really big really fast, the third got half their size and then the other three stayed small and 2 of the small ones are the ones that got eaten. but thanks for the response i'll give it all a go and see if i can handle this problem.



Big-Kev said:


> How long have your tanks been up and running? Did you cycle the tanks?
> 
> To reduce the ammonia levels you'll have to do more waterchanges. If your tank isn't cycled then you will have to keep doing waterchanges to keep levels in check.
> 
> ...


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