So Angry

[BigbruiserAl]

well i mananged to wipe out my main tank in about 2 hours, im so angry at myself but i guess its a lesson learnt. I was trying to add some calcium powder to help with snal/shrimp shells, followed the directions to mix with safe water and boom everyone dead, guess is was a PH crash. Anyway apart from being a little upset i will clean the tank tommrrow do i have re cycle the tank or will a 90% water change and filter scrub do?

thanks Al

 

[Rynofasho]

Welp, considering you're empty now, you may was well cycle out all the water, yes. 90 or 100% water change to get rid of what you added.

As far as a new CYCLE, like nitrogen cycle, no, you should be alright. Your biofilter should still be decently intact, so your options are to either go out and by a bunch of new fish, or start dosing ammonia so your bacteria doesnt die off.

Like you said, you live and learn. One of the things Ive learned from this forum is that it is better to keep fish in an adverse condition (high pH for a lower pH fish, etc) then it is to try to manufacture water chemistry changes, especially those pertaining to pH since most chemical compounds introduce rapid and often not very effective changes to pH.

What were you attempting to do with manually adjusting the pH? Anyhow, I'm sorry that you lost all your fish, but you've learned a valuable lesson in the process.

One redeeming this is that it is tons of fun to stock a tank, so cut your losses, grieve as you may, and get to stocking!

Best,

Ryan

 

[BigbruiserAl]

What were you attempting to do with manually adjusting the pH? Anyhow, I'm sorry that you lost all your fish, but you've learned a valuable lesson in the process.

i was't trying to adjust the Ph just add some calcium but it went very wrong, all my shrimp are dead, 2 guppys are alive but in real bad shape not sure let them try and recover or just end it fast for them.

My normal ph reading is 7 even with 90% water change it over 8.2+

 

[Rynofasho]

I'd suggest making a few smaller changes then. You ended up spiking the pH from 7 to who knows how high, and then changed out 90% of the water to bring it to 8.2.

Most fish are pretty tolerant of different pHs for some period of time, so the key is to slowly bring it back down with a series of water changes.

I'd recommend changing say 20% in the morning and in the evening for 2-3 days so that you are slowly adjusting the pH back down, as a drastic change is more likely to cause harm than a slow one.

 

[BigbruiserAl]

I'd suggest making a few smaller changes then. You ended up spiking the pH from 7 to who knows how high, and then changed out 90% of the water to bring it to 8.2.

Most fish are pretty tolerant of different pHs for some period of time, so the key is to slowly bring it back down with a series of water changes.

I'd recommend changing say 20% in the morning and in the evening for 2-3 days so that you are slowly adjusting the pH back down, as a drastic change is more likely to cause harm than a slow one.

Thanks ill do another change now, is their a reason to add the product to clean up the tap water to each bucket at 2.5ml or can i just add the correct amount to the 70l tank when i done filling up?

 

[Rynofasho]

Some add it to the new water, others to the tank. Doesn't make much of a difference and comes down to preference.