Help Reading This Ph And Loss Of Fish After Water Changes

StevenF said:

Normal best maintenance recommendations is to do a water change once a week of about 30 to 50% and to keep the water chemistry stable. Due to your acidic water we skipped a water change and then only did a alight water change. So in order to save your fish we have moved away from common practice. The consequence of that is organics might be building up and algae loves organics. and we haven't yet stabilized the water chemistry. It shouldn't be harmful in the short term. But after several months it could be.

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ok, makes sense...gotchya

StevenF said:

A rising PH is not unusual. As plants absorb some nutrients, others may be left behind an that can cause the PH to rise. The rise you are seeing is not of a concern yet. We are still below 8.

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StevenF said:

No leave it in. There is no reason to remove it. It will not push the PH above 8. Other elements in the water such as potassium and sodium can. And they don't come from the coral.

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Oh crap, I removed it last night because I got nervous. Andthink my shrimp is unhappy, he seems not as hyper and peppy, but I will put it back right now.

StevenF said:

I think your aquarium is telling you to do another water change. I would advise doing another larger water change and push the Kh up more.

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I will do this when I get home after work today...
should I still use the half RO and half tap that I did last time?
I still have a 5 gallon jug of each for mixing.

As always, I really appreciate this great advice!

I will do this when I get home after work today...
should I still use the half RO and half tap that I did last time?
I still have a 5 gallon jug of each for mixing.

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Yes basically the same as last time just replace more water than last time and use a little bit less RO. Basically we want to move the volume up and increase the GH and KH of the tank a little bit so that it is closer to the readings of the degassed tap water you add.

StevenF said:

Yes basically the same as last time just replace more water than last time and use a little bit less RO. Basically we want to move the volume up and increase the GH and KH of the tank a little bit so that it is closer to the readings of the degassed tap water you add.

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gotchya and will do!

StevenF said:

Yes basically the same as last time just replace more water than last time and use a little bit less RO. Basically we want to move the volume up and increase the GH and KH of the tank a little bit so that it is closer to the readings of the degassed tap water you add.

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I changed out 3 gallons (50%)
1 gallon RO
2 gallons degassed tap (treated with .2ml Prime)
I had to do some serious weed whacking so my hands where in it much more than I wanted (which always makes me nervous).
Maintenance of any sort is extremely tricky in the edge and takes far longer than it would in a normal tank.

Anyway, everyone seemed ok. Time will tell.

Gnite

Ok, 5 days after change.
It seems my PH and GH are rising but not the KH.
Is that normal?
And is this the right direction to be heading?
From what I gather with the Tetra Test Strips:
PH: between 7.2-7.8 (API test tube is 7.8 exactly)
KH: between 0-40
chlorine: 0
GH: between 150-300
Nitrites: 0
Nitates: between 0-20

Question since we started using degased tap water have you seen any fish deaths?
Also how may fish do you have left?

Ok, 5 days after change.
It seems my PH and GH are rising but not the KH.
Is that normal?
And is this the right direction to be heading?
From what I gather with the Tetra Test Strips:
PH: between 7.2-7.8 (API test tube is 7.8 exactly)
KH: between 0-40
chlorine: 0
GH: between 150-300
Nitrites: 0
Nitates: between 0-20/

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Ok your GH is about as high as I would go. KH and PH are exactly where they should be given the 2/3 debased tap water and 1/3 RO you used last time. So it looks like we need to use 50% RO and 50% blue Bullet tap water.(degased). Or we could go 50% blue bullet degassed tap and 75% degassed well water. In the future if needed we can decrease the hardness by increasing the RO or Degassed well water. content.

So set up the water mix you want to use in your 5 gallon jug and start letting it degas. The key is you always have to let your water degas. Once your water is degassed check the water parameters of the new water. It should be close to above except KH will probably be a bit lower. and do your next 50%. water change.

No deaths.

2 endlers
1 guppy
1 amano
1 nerite
the fish seem super happy.
the amano seems much more quiet (less active). Use to be a complete spaz.
and the snail seems a little more active.

StevenF said:

Question since we started using debased tap water have you seen any fish deaths?
Also how may fish do you have left?

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Sorry I didn't see that my post got totally screwed up by this new software. It is corrected now. you may have not seen most of the post.

StevenF said:

Sorry I didn't see that my post got totally screwed up by this new software. It is corrected now. you may have not seen most of the post.

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Oh thanks for the heads up! I hadn't seen the entire message and I do go back and read and reread.

StevenF said:

Ok your GH is about as high as I would go. KH and PH are exactly where they should be given the 2/3 debased tap water and 1/3 RO you used last time. So it looks like we need to use 50% RO and 50% blue Bullet tap water.(degased). Or we could go 50% blue bullet degassed tap and 75% degassed well water. In the future if needed we can decrease the hardness by increasing the RO or Degassed well water. content.

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Ok, sounds like a plan. I can do 50/50 degassed blue bullet and RO
or
50/75 degassed blue bullet and degassed well (so more well....even though we really don't know the true ph, which could be even lower than 6)?!

and...one more thing... am I keeping the teeny bag of crushed coral in there?

Ok, sounds like a plan. I can do 50/50 degassed blue bullet and RO
or
50/75 degassed blue bullet and degassed well (so more well....even though we really don't know the true ph, which could be even lower than 6)?!

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If you use tap water you have to let it out gas. If you use well water you have to let it outgas. When the water is in a pipe there is nowhere for the CO2 to go so the PH is low. Once it is in an open container it will out gas. And your earlier test show that once it has out gased the PH rises to about 7.

and...one more thing... am I keeping the teeny bag of crushed coral in there?

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Think of the crushed coral as a type of thermostat you have for your room heater. Your thermostat turns on the heater when the room is cold and then the thermostat turns it off when the temperature is OK. The coral in your filter is doing something similar. When your PH is 7 it does nothing. When the PH drops do to acid it turns on a and dissolves to neutralize the acid.

There is no risk to leaving it in the filter. However if you remove it there is a risk of fish loss if the PH drops dramatically. Leave it in permanently. Just add more as it slowly dissolves away.

StevenF said:

Think of the crushed coral as a type of thermostat you have for your room heater. Your thermostat turns on the heater when the room is cold and then the thermostat turns it off when the temperature is OK. The coral in your filter is doing something similar. When your PH is 7 it does nothing. When the PH drops do to acid it turns on a and dissolves to neutralize the acid.

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Ok, gotchya. Good explanation!

I just did my 50% w/c with 50%RO and 50%ungassed tap.

As I was sucking out the water from the tank and into the bucket...
my eyes going from the tank to the bucket to make sure I was getting the correct amount out ...I felt a "thwump" and into the bucket comes my guppy!

Uh Oh. These little fish enjoy living on the edge as they always follow the hose around the tank. I always try to keep it up against the wall as to not suck one up by accident but today it happened. Poor little guy. I quickly netted and put back in the tank. He's happily swimming about like it never happened but I sure hope he remains ok.

But because of this little accident I got all flustered and added my water mixture into the tank before testing it.

I'm so bummed. I will keep an eye on the levels over the next few days....
and keep an eye on the guppy that went on a wild ride.

Uh Oh. These little fish enjoy living on the edge as they always follow the hose around the tank. I always try to keep it up against the wall as to not suck one up by accident but today it happened. Poor little guy. I quickly netted and put back in the tank. He's happily swimming about like it never happened but I sure hope he remains ok.

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Why is it that the little ones are always to most adventurous?

StevenF said:

Why is it that the little ones are always to most adventurous?

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I don't know but they sure are!

Crazy little guppy is still ok this am. He honestly doesn't look any worse for the wear but that had to be stressful. Goodness.

Anyway. Parameters are all the same except for GH which appears to be 75 or at least between 75-150 (although much closer to 75).

That came down considerably (between 150-300 from before w/c) ... is that ok?
And the fact that nothing else changed much...ok?

Anyway. Parameters are all the same except for GH which appears to be 75 or at least between 75-150 (although much closer to 75).

That came down considerably (between 150-300 from before w/c) ... is that ok?
And the fact that nothing else changed much...ok?

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That came down faster then I expected but it is where we need it. Keep doing once per week water changes using the last water mix. If the GH climbs increase the amount of degassed well water. If the GH drops increase the amount of degassed blue bullet processed water. Basically adjust the mix of water to keep the GH stable.

Whenever you do a water change verify the PH of new water before adding it.the crushed coral in your filter will help prevent low PH but it won't instantly correct for bad water being added. If all goes well after two weeks You can replace your lost fish. You probably don't need to use a water conditioner. So gradually reduce that. The crushed coral in your filter will also help protect you from chlorine.

StevenF said:

That came down faster then I expected but it is where we need it. Keep doing once per week water changes using the last water mix. If the GH climbs increase the amount of degassed well water. If the GH drops increase the amount of degassed blue bullet processed water. Basically adjust the mix of water to keep the GH stable.

Whenever you do a water change verify the PH of new water before adding it.the crushed coral in your filter will help prevent low PH but it won't instantly correct for bad water being added. If all goes well after two weeks You can replace your lost fish. You probably don't need to use a water conditioner. So gradually reduce that. The crushed coral in your filter will also help protect you from chlorine.

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excellent plan!

do I need to do 50% once a week? or less?

and when I add new fish (hoping that I get there) ..
was I right in only keeping 6 fish of this size (endlers). I was going by the 1 inch of fish per gallon rule. I am heavily planted but I don't know if that matters in such small quarters.

Thanks a million!