Fungal Infection?

[Silencedogood]

How big of water change should I do?

 

[Essjay]

Test your tap water for GH and KH. They don't change from tap water unless you do something to alter it (eg calcareous rocks in the tank).

 

[Silencedogood]

Test your tap water for GH and KH. They don't change from tap water unless you do something to alter it (eg calcareous rocks in the tank).

@essjay I usually add an alkaline buffer to my water after water changes.

 

[Essjay]

Ah, in that case it will change the KH and possibly the GH as well.


What is the buffer: Adding KH will not help guppies if you have soft water as they need a high GH rather than KH. If you tell us what it is we can see if it also increases GH.

 

[Silencedogood]

What is the buffer: Adding KH will not help guppies if you have soft water as they need a high GH rather than KH. If you tell us what it is we can see if it also increases GH.

It is the Seachem Alkaline Buffer.

 

[Essjay]

Seachem don't state exactly what's in it, but they do say that it's a sodium bicarbonate buffer. This will not increase the GH of the water, only the KH.

How hard is your tap water? Since the buffer doesn't affect that, we can see if it is low, which will also contribute to the stress affecting the fish. if it does turn out to be low, we can suggest better ways to make the water suitable for guppies.





With a nitrate that high, you need to do as big a water change as possible. Leave enough water for the fish to be able to swim. As long as the new water is dechlorinated, at the same temperature as the tank water, and has the buffer added at the usual rate, very large water changes won't do any harm. Let the tank run for half an hour after the water change (just to allow the new water and the bit of old water to mix thoroughly) then test for everything again. if nitrate is stll higher than the level in your tap water - and especially if there is also some ammonia and nitrite - do another big water change.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Don’t want to jump in on others good advice. Just want to tell you to do a big water change daily of at least 75%. You may need to do this daily for a couple of weeks.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Don’t want to jump in on others good advice. Just want to tell you to do a big water change daily of at least 75%. You may need to do this daily for a couple of weeks.

Oops, I guess I posted as Essjay did. Same advice though regarding water change.

 

[Silencedogood]

I'll do a water change asap. My ph in this particular tank has always been 7.2-7.6. Not sure why it dropped so low.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Did you add any driftwood or leaves? They will drop PH.

 

[Silencedogood]

No, this tank is only plastic plants and two rocks.

 

[Silencedogood]

The new water isn't going to be the same temp as the old water because I raised the tank temp to 86 F. Is that okay?

 

[FishGuest5123]

Mix some warm water with new water to get close to same temp..within a few degrees. Do this before adding to tank.

 

[Essjay]

There is a lot of nitrate in the tank. Nitrate is acidic and will counteract the buffer you are using. Other things excreted by the fish (things we don't have testers for) are also acidic, and you have a lot of fish in a tank that size so that means a lot of acidic things being produced in the tank.

This is why the pH is dropping. And a changing pH is not good for fish - something else that is stressing the fish.


The use of this kind of buffer is not recommended. You need to think about pH, GH and KH as all connected and target all three. This is why we need to know the GH and KH of your tap water so that some better way can be used to make the water suitable for guppies.

GH is more important than pH. If you do have low GH you need to target that, and the pH & KH should rise as well.

 

[Silencedogood]

Tap water gh is 50-100 ppm and tap water kh is 50-100 ppm.