# Going to tear tank down and start over!!



## Fishman (Mar 1, 2003)

My 125 gal tank is really pissing me off!!

You guys are probably sick of hearing the same thing from me all the time about my tank but here it goes again.....

I am at the point to tear my tank down and clean everything filters,media etc... and start cycle over!

I dont think I can get my water parameters back to the correct levels without doing this!

Here is the problem.....

I had a large peice of driftwood in my tank that was giving off all of this brown dirt....I mean alot... made my gravel brown sometimes....

I removed this 3 weeks ago because it was lowering my ph to below or at 6.0 constantly. Also the KH to 20-40!

Since I have been doing 30% water changes weekly with gravel siphoning and trying to work my ph up to about 7.0 and KH at 100 but it still drops from 6.8 to 6.0 in less than 5 days.

Just tested today before my weekly cleaning and my ammonia is back up to 1ppm and tank cloudy as hell Ph at or below 6.0 from 6.8 last sunday with no ammonia!!

The fluctuation in this PH and the ammonia is going to kill my fish eventually because I fight with this every week!! Does not stay constant at all.
I have a 75gal comm. tank that is perfect stable at 6.8 and no ammonia ever with the same waterchanges I do on the 125 WTF!!!!

But I never had any driftwood in the 75 could there still be driftwood dirt left in my filters that is still lowering my ph!! This is my reasoning for a total tank teardown!!

Any sugestions greatly appreciated!!!


----------



## RAZORTEETH (Feb 6, 2003)

man somethings bad wrong i have two pieces of driftwood in my 55 and i have no problems the only thing i can tell u is leave it alone u keep changing water and gravel cleaning like that u will never have any bacteria built up just leave it alone i do water changes used to be once a week now i dont have to do it but once a month and the parameters are fine as is the water being clear itself so i dont believe it's all in the driftwood.


----------



## Fishman (Mar 1, 2003)

Here is the deal...... I have a shitload of filtrarion on this tank 2 fluval 403s and 2 AC 500's and I use bio media in all of those filters and there is no reason I should not have enough bacteria built up!!!

If I raise my PH to 6.8 my ammonia drops instantly in my tank......... but after a couple days the ph goes down and the ammonia goes up because the nitrifiers do not work as good or die off at low PH!!

I have done the same as said above for the last 3 weeks since I removed the driftwood but I will not stop going up and down!! If I leave this alone
(No waterchanges/siphon) than my ammonia keeps going up and my Ph down and then dead P's!!!! I dont know anymore I am about ready to say F it!


----------



## piranha45 (Apr 8, 2003)

if u wanna burn some cash in the hopes of a quick fix, perhaps you could go to a lfs and buy bottles of nitrite remover, nitrate remover, ammonia remover, and those bacteria colony bottles.

all of that shouldnt cost u more than 15 bucks...


----------



## Fishman (Mar 1, 2003)

Im not hoping for a quick fix I just would like to FIX IT somehow and I am trying to get some opinions on how to do that!

I dont add any chemicals to my water unless I have to!!!!


----------



## dead golfish (Apr 24, 2003)

do what piranha45 said and do a larger water change like almost 50% weekly until the ph and ammonia get stable again before my ammonia was unstable so I started doing 75% water changes and my waters fine now


----------



## RAZORTEETH (Feb 6, 2003)

like i said i do water changes once a month and my water parameters are fine have 2 pieces of driftwood in my tank so i dont know why you are having this problem it does not make sense


----------



## Death in #'s (Apr 29, 2003)

maybe the tank is possesed


----------



## GARGOYLE (Feb 12, 2003)

I give ya some of my water. My tap comes out like at 7.8, I want more rays, but not willing to risk it with my ph. I have the opposite problem you have, so iono what to say.


----------



## lastyboy (Apr 14, 2003)

Man ! it really sucks when you get a persistent problem like this.
What to do?
I dont think large water changes would be good, the bacteria in your filtration would never get a chance to establish itself.

Maybe 10-15 water change every other day, and continue to monitor levels one a week.

Hope you sort it soon, mate.
But i suppose we have to


----------



## Raptor (Jan 3, 2003)

Try to wait it out. I would take your p's out and just keep feeders in. Use some baking soda to raise the ph. Just add 2 teaspoons a day untill ph is to desired levels. With the driftwood. I would let it sit in some hot water with alot of baking soda for a day or two. That has worked for my driftwood lowering my ph. And don't change water for a couple of weeks. Let it work itself out. It will. Or if ya want a quick fix id Do a big waterchange. and add biospira with no other chemicals. It will kill the bacteria in the biospira. I can attest to this stuff. It saved my ass from removing fish i had no room for.


----------



## lastyboy (Apr 14, 2003)

hey Raptor!!
well done on your 700th post!!


----------



## Fishman (Mar 1, 2003)

Well here is an update!!

I changed 90% of my water on sunday and raised my ph slowly over the whole day. I siphoned it really good and cleaned out all of my floss etc not (bio media).

Will it has been 2 days and my Ph is stable at 7.0 so far and ammonia at 0 and nitrates at 20ppm.
Hopefully the problem is solved!
Driftwood is never going back in my tank because this is what caused all my problems to begin with!!

I jsut added more plants to compensate and my fish seem to be very much happier since!!!
Hope this stays this way!!!


----------



## lastyboy (Apr 14, 2003)

Nice one fishman,
are things still cool with the tank??


----------



## Fishman (Mar 1, 2003)

Checked ph today and it is down to 6.8.

I hope this is not a trend for it to start diving again!
The ammonia is at 0 and the Nitrates are just above 20 ppm!
I'm going to do my weekly water change friday and hopefully everything stays in check!!


----------

