Water Problems

I had a customer come into the store today with a problem.
You see, he'd bought a ten gallon tank and had put fish in it....
Only they were having troubles keeping the Ammonia levels down within the tank.

He'd tried everything he could think of to get those ammonia levels down.
And nothing. 
If anything the Ammonia levels in his tank were only increasing. 

Which...isn't a good thing.

And everything that we would suggest to treat the tank....he'd already done them.

*exhales*
It's kinda weird....in that if people have problems with their fish tanks...it's usually those people who own the 10 gallon sizes. 
Dunno what it is about that ten gallon size....but it's definitely difficult to keep that tank 'happy' for a lot of customers.

This particular customer, had ended up bringing in a couple of his catfish in some spring water he'd been filling his tank with.
So I decided to test the water, there -though it could show slightly skewed results because there were fish in the water sample.
And discovered that the gentleman's water was rather soft, low in alkalinity, and low in PH levels.

Which could be the cause of some of his problems.
Because my friend Google (because yes, I google answers if I don't know them.) told me there was a particular syndrome called "Old Tank Syndrome" where ammonia levels could skyrocket if a) the tank was overcrowded. or b) the PH is low because that means the biofilter can't function properly and that biofilter helps to decrease ammonia in the water.

Basically, I told the customer that he should probably try adding in some good old tap water or yard water into his tank. Water that wasn't soft (because the fish in our area are used to hard water) and would be harder than the spring water. And see if that would help.

I dunno if he believed me.
Nor if he's actually going to try it.
But I did at least offer him a couple of possible solutions to the problem....

*exhales*

In any case.
Out of that exchange....I also ended up adopting his two catfish he brought in. -A Peppered Cory and a Sterbai Cory-- as he didn't want them to die in his tank. And I have a nice 125 gallon fish tank at home that should have plenty of room for them to do well in.
*fingers crossed*

-Sarnic Dirchi