Im Worried About My Plec !

[stuartr]

Hey im worried about my Plec as the water is gonna be too acidic for him, ive got no nursery either.

I have a low ph of 4.5 - 5.0

my nitrite has come up to 1ppm, (ive quickly added a couple of caps of safe start)

no ammonia present

10 pearl danios which I used to cycle the tank (The LFS said they were african moons but he obviously didnt see there barbs)

1 young plec growing up ready for his very own tank

about 6 kilos of bogwood that has been in from the start and has been soaked for about a fortnight before hand.

I have tested the tapwater and its at around 6.5 so the kit is still working.


I have put a tight full of 4 kilos of crushed coral, and done a 25% water change will this be enough till I get to the LSF for an up buffer on monday, if this works should I just keep the coral in my tank?

Am I doing the right things?

 

[karneval]

My first instinct would actually to be to get them back into some higher pH water. I don't know how quickly the pH in your tank dropped, though. I think moving them into a container of conditioned tap water right now could shock them more than leaving them where they are.

Just test every hour or so to see if the coral is helping. I don't know what else to tell you, really. I'm not good with pH-related things. Good luck, though.

 

[rabbut]

You need to raise the pH slowly, or you will give your fish pH shock that said, small waterchanges will kill your fish due to nitrite poisoning. You have low buffering capasity in your water, I suspect, do you have a KH test kit?

Don't use pH bufferes; they make the pH swing. Add a hand full of crushed coral to your filter to keep the pH stable

I'd do 10% waterchanges hourly to get the pH up again, while lowering nitrite

All the best
Rabbut

 

[stuartr]

No I dont have a KH test kit, Im gonna invest in one on monday, what sort of result should I expect, and what should the KH be ideally.

 

[rabbut]

If you haden't added the coral, it would be low. With the coral, whom knows what it will be. It wants to be about 4-6dGH

 

[rdd1952]

Do smallish (10 to 15 percent) water changes to raise the pH back up. The amount of crushed coral you added, could cause too large a rise. It really only takes a small amount to raise it usually. Have you added anything to the tank to cause the drop? It is very odd to see a drop of that proportion. Also, you said you used the danios to cycle the tank. If you have nitrite, your tank isn't cycled. What is your nitrate reading? High nitrates can push the pH down.