I have been having trouble with my GH. It has been unstable. My tap water, which comes from a well, is very hard and has a high GH but in the tank it was dropping. I'm not knowledgeable enough about biochemistry to understand why my buffer was dropping. I was advised to add baking soda, which I did and that brought it closer to normal but still not up to the level of the tap water.
This is rather puzzling. First off, do you remember the numbers for the GH, and do you happen to know the KH (carbonate hardness, or Alkalinity)? The KH is the "buffer" for the pH, but the GH is the dissolved minerals and these three are connected.
It is unusual for the GH/KH to fall in the aquarium if they are fairly high in the source water, and if due to calcium and magnesium (the most common "hard" minerals). While organics (peat, wood, leaves, etc) can lower all three, this is minimal if the GH/KH are on the high side as the KH will buffer.
Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is not advisable. This is only temporary in buffering (if it even does), but it also builds up, and sodium is not good for fish.
I had been planning to take all the fish out and do a major overhaul of the tank's aquascape, adding a sponge filter in addition to the power filter, and adding some driftwood and quite a number of additional plants. I'm hoping the additional filtering, plants, and hiding spots will improve both the water quality and the bullying issue.
Sounds good. Except I wouldn't be inclined to add a second filter. "Over filtering" is a myth (meaning, there is no biological benefit unless things are out of balance to begin with) and as we've been discussing today in another thread, water current does impact fish one way or the other.
I'm worried about moving the fish to their temporary tank since it has more perfect water parameters and I wonder if that difference will shock them. I was thinking of draining most of the water from the temporary tank and siphoning water from their regular tank into it so they'd have similar water parameters to what they're used to.
It depends upon the degree of the "difference," and this involves primarily GH and pH, but also KH. Without numbers it is a guess.
I have used water from the existing tank with the fish to primarily fill a temporary tank, such as when I am tearing down and re-aquascaping a tank and the fish go in a smaller temporary tank. Or you can mix half and half.
The more I look at the Mickey Mouse, the more I doubt she has velvet. Thank goodness!! But I read that sub-optimal water conditions can cause fading which is sort of more what it looks like.
Anything "out of the normal" can cause stress, and stress is the direct cause of 95% of all fish disease. Pathogens may be present, but it is the stress weakening the fishes' immune system and general weakening of their physiology due to the stress that prevents the fish being able to deal with the pathogen. This includes the GH, KH, pH, temperature, nitrate, (and of course ammonia and nitrite if present), unsuitable tank space (meaning, too small for the proper development and habits of the fish species), unsuitable tankmates, insufficient number of the species for shoaling species, unsuitable aquascape (something a fish species needs is missing), filter current...as you can see, the sources of stress are many. Avoiding as much of these as possible is the key to healthy fish.
Byron.
