What happened to the water?

[wai_jai]

So my puffie (GSP) that has been surviving since the beginning of my tank....has just passed away last night after struggling for a few days....
During the XMas period, I only did the quick "give blood worms a day" and go...didn't really deal with anything else.

Before the XMas period, my water levels were
pH - 7.9
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 15

Which is kinda normal for my tank 10gal for the 1 GSP.
This was 2 weeks ago.
I started noticing that my puffie didn't eat much food and was dwelling in dark areas of the tank. But I didn't do anything since I was running about with XMas stuff. I just checked my water a few days ago right after the New Year and found that there was something really REALLY wrong with my water.....

pH - 6.2 (HOW IN THE WORLD DOES THIS HAPPEN!?!?!?!, I checked 3 times to make sure I wasn't seeing things)
Ammonia - 0.5
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 50

I did do my usual weekly water change in the 2 week XMas period too...and was using the usual API water conditioner stuff. For the past few days I was doing 25-30% water changes to try to get the water back and finally last night the water levels were back to normal....but my puffie was too poisoned to live.

I guess I just want to know if anyone knows how the pH level could suddenly dip like that? The Ammonia is most likely from the food waste and the Nitrate is just from the food waste too. Also, my tank has been growing a lot of green/red/brown Algae too.......

[Myaj]

When organics build up, they actually will lower your pH. Its just one of the many reasons to do regular water changes to help keep things "stable".

Keeping a GSP in a ten gallon tank and not doing any water changes in two weeks, yet still feeding it a very meaty food, could easily raise your nitrates that high.

[wai_jai]

I did change the water in the two weeks, my usual 25-30% weekly water change.
My tap water has a pH around 7.6-8.2 (fluctuates from month to month).

[Myaj]

Did you have visitors over that may have been feeding the fish? Or maybe you dropped an extra big glob of worms in there..

A 10 gallon is way too small for a GSP, but in a two week period of time with a decent sized water change in there, the nitrates shouldn't have jumped that high, unless your puffer is quite large. The nitrates jumping explains the pH drop, but something triggered the nitrates. Excess food is my guess, were there any other fish or live plants in there that may have died and decayed?

[wai_jai]

I did give my GSP a treat with some Krills but I didn't pay attention if he finished it all or not....hmmm.....that might've been it....big glob of food......

No live plants and the GSP lives alone in the tank cuz it managed to kill off my other GSP half a year ago.

Thanks for the quick responses.

[Agnate]

I agree that the pH drop could be a combination of extremely soft water (low alkalinity), and the increase in waste the food. Do you vacuum the gravel when you do a water change? If not, that's likely the cause.

It's another reason why we boast large tank sizes for puffers, as larger volumes of water allow for a more stable environment, and thus less chance of problems caused by environment fluctuations.

Sorry to hear about your loss.

[wai_jai]

Yes, I suction the gravel when I do my water changes too as I can get out the waste and some cloudy stuff from the gravel area.

I will need to let my tank settle a bit and look into maybe some other fishes.......

[MatthewLaw]

since your pH is rather low to begin through the tap water, I would suggest purchasing some pH buffering agents to be added during water changes, so you keep the pH at 8.2

[Agnate]

since your pH is rather low to begin through the tap water, I would suggest purchasing some pH buffering agents to be added during water changes, so you keep the pH at 8.2

Just do not use liquid pH buffers!

If you wish to make your water harder and thus raise your pH, either use Crushed Coral substrate in a mesh bag (place it in your tank or filter), or purchase pieces of coral rock (it's usually white and pretty porous, about $3 CAD per pound, and comes in hand-sized chunks). Simply putting these in your tank will stabilize your pH around 7.8, and you cannot "overdose" with rocks. Using liquid pH buffers creates even MORE instability, as it requires a strict dosing regime to maintain a specific pH, as is very prone to rapid fluctuations or accidental overdosing. I only recommend liquid buffers for emergency situations, such as having to perform a freshwater dip for a saltwater fish infested with SW ich (since the pH of the freshwater should match that of the saltwater). Otherwise, stick to the natural and time-proven ways of maintaining water parameters.