High Ph Problem Or Buffers

[Angelfish Lover]

10 gallon tank with New fish 6 nickel size angels and one cory cat, set up for about 4 years. The fish that were in there are now in my 55 gallon tank so this 10 gallon did not have fish for about 2 weeks but I left everything running even the heater. About 2 weeks ago I added the fish above, PH was ok 7.0. One angel looked sick so I treated for 5 days with the Marcen Two, lost that fish, PH was ok at first then shot up to 7.4 and I know angels like acidy water. I took out the limestone rocks which were in there for 4 years with no problem, bought a new filter changed the filter pad and added PH down several times which did not work, now 2 more fish have died. Two days ago I did a 50% water change, PH was still high. Today I did a 50% water change and filled water back up with distilled water. I was told it could be a buffer problem and help will be appreciated.

 

[WILDER]

Messing around with the ph to much, angel need to be in aleast a 30gal so the 10gal is not ideal for them, what was the water stats of the tank when you added the first fish with it being empty for two weeks, as your bacteria colony could of died, and if you had high ammonia readings it would of altered the ph.

 

[Bloo]

The pH is not your problem.
Leaving everything running without fish, would have meant that all the beneficial bacteria died off.
No fish in tank to keep the nitrogen cycle going = uncycled tank.
Have you taken your Nitrite, Ammonia and Nitrate readings ?

 

[Angelfish Lover]

Messing around with the ph to much, angel need to be in aleast a 30gal so the 10gal is not ideal for them, what was the water stats of the tank when you added the first fish with it being empty for two weeks, as your bacteria colony could of died, and if you had high ammonia readings it would of altered the ph.

Thanks for your reply, the ammonia was clear no problem there and the PH was 7.0. As of this morning after the distilled water change the 4th fish that was sick is hanging on and really trying to survive. I do not have any medicine in the tank for him, I am just hoping it was the high PH. The current PH reading is back to 7.0 the tank is clear so I am hoping this water change worked. I'll keep in mind about the 30 gal, I do have a 55 gallon and I raised several angels in the 10 gallon which grew to 4" size.

The pH is not your problem.
Leaving everything running without fish, would have meant that all the beneficial bacteria died off.
No fish in tank to keep the nitrogen cycle going = uncycled tank.
Have you taken your Nitrite, Ammonia and Nitrate readings ?

Thank you for your reply, so you think it could be a killed bacteria problem? My PH is 7.0 now after the distilled water change, I have two fish now that aren't eating, one has been sick for 2 days but is surviving so far. My tank has always been clear isn't a cloudy tank a sign of bacteria? I am just going to leave the tank along to see what happens. Let me know what you think.

 

[WILDER]

Yes it could be ph shock.

 

[Bloo]

I think a pH shock very unlikely. Unless you've had a CO2 crash (which doesn't seem to be the case as you do not inject CO2), your pH would not have shot up straight away. A gradual increase over a few hours has little to absolutely no affect on fish. That's what a drip method is all about.