Help Needed! Very Sick Fish

[flaxinn]

Lost the tetra with out his tail

After a ton or research I think I have finally found the root of all my tank issues. After reseaching what would cause my increase in PH I came up with shells and coral. (I have neither in my tank...so I thought)

I went back to the pet store that sold me the sand for my tank and found out they gave my marine sand (crushed coral)...I did not catch it as I did not know there was difference in sands and told them I had a fresh water tank.

Now...how do I go about removing the sand and lowering the PH without too much stress on my fish?

 

[gforce17]

I've never had to do it YET?? but I think you may have to keep your fish elsewhere while you do a complete clean out of your tank and put new gravel in. Have you got a suitable container where you can keep them at the right temperature moving your heater into it if you can? Your filter should be ok if it's not stopped for too long.

 

[flaxinn]

I have moved all the fish to a 4 gallon bucket, put in the heater and filter and tank water. But....Arggg!!! What a mess. I've had to dismantle my entire tank to get rid of all traces of the sand. Which has been extremely hard considering one of my decorations was built inside the tank before it was set up and it will not fit through the tiny opening.

I probably don't have enough water and am sure I will have to go through the cycling process all over agian...not to mention the stress on the fish will probably be too much for them to handle. And all the fish store is going to do is replace my sand

 

[Rummynose]

I have moved all the fish to a 4 gallon bucket, put in the heater and filter and tank water. But....Arggg!!! What a mess. I've had to dismantle my entire tank to get rid of all traces of the sand. Which has been extremely hard considering one of my decorations was built inside the tank before it was set up and it will not fit through the tiny opening.

I probably don't have enough water and am sure I will have to go through the cycling process all over agian...not to mention the stress on the fish will probably be too much for them to handle. And all the fish store is going to do is replace my sand

As long as you keep your filter running on the container with the fish in it the filter will stay cycled. If that is not possible, keep the filter media stored in tank water and you should be able to salvage some of the bacteria.

 

[flaxinn]

Does anyone know...if I usie half tank water (high PH) and half tap water (low PH) will my PH eventually drop? Or will the high PH water just keep increasing the ph of all the water?

 

[gforce17]

Ty not to get too stressed. As long as you keep your filter working or follow the advice about keeping the media alive you can fill your tank with fresh treated water. It's the filter that does the work not the water. Hope that's helpful.