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Well spoke with the LFS and they are more than happy to replace some cardinals however they say my PH is too high at 7.4 which I am inclined to believe as they do prefer 6.5-7.0 but I have read that they can be kept in PH upto 7.5. I know that I am a little high but hey!

They have said I need to lower the PH can anyone suggest anything? I dont really want to add chemical as I dont want to effect the filter at this early stage!! Also 4 Cardinals seem to be doing so well!!
 
i've kept cardinals at 7.4 with no problems I imagine they'd be fine at 7.5 but it does depend to an extent what they were bred in and are acclimitised too.

i wouldn't suggest permanently altering the pH of the tank but just a very gentle acclimitisation process. do you have a quarantine tank?

ask the lfs what pH the cardinals are in at the moment
 
OK they would take a careful acclimitisation to go up 0.5 but not the end of the world, do you have a Q tank you could use?

What I'd suggest is you get the LFS to give you a drum full of their water thats at 7.0 and fill the q tank with that then gradually over a week or so do very very small water changes with your water to bring the pH slowly up to 7.5 then they can go into the main tank.
 
Good idea Miss Wiggle! I havent got a seperate tank I am in the process of saving for a larger tank at the moment so may have to dip into that!

I will speak with them either later today or tomorrow! I will see how the little ones do over the next few days!! I just hope the shock the change in PH is not going to kill them all!!
 
if they get past the first few days then they should be fine.

having a spare small tank for quarantine/hospital will be very useful to you in the long run anyway so it's certainly not wasted money, just an investment. :good:
 
If another's shying off and loosing colour, I'd medicate. It almost certainly is an internal issue :sad:

If you get replacements, keep them in QT for at least a month, preferably longer before you move them into the main tank :good:
 
Will do, been watching them all and they seem to be getting a lot closer now and doing what I would expect of fish! The nippy one seems to have stopped too!! So hopefully things are calming down!
 
You know, looking back to these posts, around Dec 16 or so, I remember thinking that well, this will be a bit of a test of our standard advice that new tanks should not get neons or cardinals until they have aged 6 months, regardless of how good the cycling is. I hate to say it but that advice seems to be holding up here.

Tuppers, we may be guilty of getting so familiar with your story and you as a friend that none of us had the willpower to give you a firm -no- to your stocking plan of neons/cards as first fish in the tank!!

Of course, as usual with many fish ills, we'll probably never really know in truth. It might just be an internal disease and bad luck or a set of them particularly sensitive to pH etc.

~~waterdrop~~
 
Yes this is true WD I did apologise to these guys weeks in advance of the impending disaster!!

Though I do see a remarkanble improvement in the ones that are left though I do wait to see what lies in wait tomorrow morning!!

A question if no body minds!!: (AGAIN I KNOW)

How do you reduce the PH without using a chemical?
 
RO water. Any movement of the pH has to be done very carefully, and is only realy recomended for people where it is essential to move it, due to the potential for pH swings :/
 
Its much, much harder than raising it (at least to do it safely and correctly I believe) and as usual there is more than one method I believe. Using peat (yes, brown twiggy peatmoss stuff like from the garden) in your filter is one of the methods. There are lots of people who like keeping discus and they need a low pH, so often this is where a lot of the know-how comes from.

~~waterdrop~~
 
Thanks for that I am not considering it as I thought it would be difficult to do it! Especially with my limited knowledge of this all anyway! :blush:

Well the little ones have had a feed and all is well!! :rolleyes:

I am currently feeding v small amounts twice a day is this correct? ????

And I have been planning a new tank I will be looking at creating a new thread to get everyone’s opinions!! :thumbs:
 

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