So, the pH in my established tank crashed about a week ago. It went down to 6.4 and I know with swordtails and platys, its needs to be much higher. i did water changes and everything and could not get the ph back up. So I went to my LFS and asked some advice. They recommended that I used API pH correct 7.0 to start out with, so I don't jump the pH to high too fast. Well, I must have gotten a bad batch, within 24 hours, the tank was cloudy brown, the pH jumped to 8.0, and four of my fish died from it. I lost my chinese algae eater, my BABY swordtail (he was only 3 months old) one of my older male swordtails, and my fancy guppy. As much as I didn't want to I had to remove them from the tank and move them over to the 40 gallon that I am currently cycling. The good thing is, the cycle was almost done, the ammonia was low, and the nitrites were low. I did a 50% water change to get rid of the few nitrites and also to drop the nitrate level. I did this twice to bring the nitrates below 20ppm. With the help of established media from my friends fish tank, the cycle seems to be continuing. They have been in the new tank for 24 hours and I have been watching the water like a hawk. The ammonia remains low (no higher than .25ppm), and the nitrites have not spiked. The fish that survived the ordeal seems to be doing okay. My survivers were my 2 red male swordtail, my pregnent female platy, my pleco, my hi-fin white skirt tetra, my clown loach, and my halfmoon betta. They seem a little shaken up by the ordeal and seem to be a little weak. They are swimming more now and eating. I really do hope they will be okay.
I am posting this kind of as a warning about those products. I am sure most of you know about them, but this goes out mainly to newbies like me to be careful. This ordeal devastated me because I had those adult fish for almost a year, and that baby was born in my tank
I hope this doesn't happen to anyone else. On a lighter note, I did go back to the fish store and they refunded my money for that product, as well as replaced the fish that it killed. I know you can't put a price on fish you have had that long, but the fact that they wanted to try and make it right made the situation a little easier.
I am posting this kind of as a warning about those products. I am sure most of you know about them, but this goes out mainly to newbies like me to be careful. This ordeal devastated me because I had those adult fish for almost a year, and that baby was born in my tank
I hope this doesn't happen to anyone else. On a lighter note, I did go back to the fish store and they refunded my money for that product, as well as replaced the fish that it killed. I know you can't put a price on fish you have had that long, but the fact that they wanted to try and make it right made the situation a little easier.
