Sucker

[Colin_T]

The suckermouth catfish has nothing to do with the pH dropping.

Rinse the test phial out several times with the water you are testing, before doing the test. This will rinse out any potential residue from previous tests. Same deal after doing a test, rinse the phials out well under tap water then shake dry or turn upside down on a rack to dry out.

Make sure you use a cap on top of the test phial so the acids on your skin don't contaminate the water being tested, and to keep the test reagent off your skin. The chemicals they use in water testing kits are pretty toxic so it's best to avoid coming in contact with them.

A simple way to slowly raise the pH of the water is to add some limestone or sandstone rocks to the tank. You can also add shells as ornaments, or a bag of shells to a filter. And dead coral skeletons can also be used but most are sharp and limestone, sandstone or shells are a better option.

Limestone, sandstone, coral skeleton and shells are all calcium carbonate and neutralise acids in water and raise the pH. The more you have in the tank, the faster the pH will go up.

If you have African Rift Lake cichlids then get a Rift Lake Water conditioner and add that to some tap water, allow the mineral salts in the Rift Lake conditioner to dissolve and then use that water for water changes.

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If you have locally bred bristlenose catfish they should be fine in hard water. A lot of people keep and breed bristlenose catfish in Rift Lake tanks with hard water and have been doing so for many years. If you can find local bred, or fish from somewhere that has hard water, you are fine.

If you want "wild caught" bristlenose or other types of suckermouth catfish like Peckoltias, Panaques, etc, they should be kept in soft water.

 

[Ericag90]

Okay ty so much!

 

[Byron]

PH is really low for some reason? Normally at a 8.0 I’m getting 6.8?
GH 85
NO2 0
NO3 .5
Does this sucker have anything to do with my PH being low?

Your GH, KH and pH are interconnected. The GH is the amount of dissolved minerals (primarily calcium and magnesium) in the water. The KH is carbonate hardness or Alkalinity and is usually similar to the GH (from what you've posted I would expect this here). The pH will be relative to the GH, and the KH works to buffer the pH preventing fluctuations. The degree this buffering works is determined by the GH and especially KH. The lower, the less impact; the higher, the more impact on pH.

A GH of 85 I will assume is ppm or mg/l. Degrees would be next to impossible that high. But in ppm or mg/l (these are equal) 85 is low, equating to 4.7 dGH. This is soft water. There is not going to be much if any buffering capability.

The pH tends to lower naturally in any aquarium. This is because organics accumulate and as they are broken down (decomposition) by bacteria they produce CO2 which creates carbonic acid and thus the pH lowers or becomes more on the acidic side. This is a natural process. When you have a very low GH/KH, there is nothing to work against this, so the pH reduction can be significant.

Water authorities in areas of soft water often add something to increase pH; this prevents or lessens corrosion of pipes and appliances. What they add is often not permanent, so it does not have any real lasting buffering capacity. I would suspect that is what is going on here, if your pH at 8 was tap water as opposed to tank water.

The fish, all of them, add organics so they are major contributors to the above acidification, but even without fish, this would tend to occur though likely less rapidly.

Rift lake cichlids will not be healthy with so low a GH. They absolutely must have moderately hard or harder water to provide essential minerals they assimilate internally from the water that is continually entering their bloodstream via osmosis and at the gills. You have two options: re-home the rift lake cichlids and go with soft water fish that will thrive in your source water, or raise the GH/KH/pH for the rift lake cichlids but do not get any other fish besides these. I won't go into details as to how you can do the latter, except to say you can purchase rift lake salts to add to the water at every water change or you can change the substrate to a calcarous sand like aragonite which has calcium and magnesium that continually dissolves into the water. It might however be easier to re-home the cichlids and go with fish suited to your source water; that is certainly less expensive and easier to manage long-term.

EDIT. Colin posted as I was typing, we are saying much the same thing.

 

[Ericag90]

Are these from the rift lake as well?

 

[Ericag90]

Him as well?

 

[Ericag90]

I have had these fish for a little over 4 months now. I’m extremely annoyed that the store would even sell me fish that aren’t compatible! I know me saying they look happy and healthy doesn’t mean that they really are....I researched the fish I posted pictures of and the info I got was way opposite of the rift lake cichlids!?

 

[fluttermoth]

The last two fish are South American dwarf cichlids that need soft water, not hard.

I think the one in the first picture is a Bolivian ram, Mikrogeophagus altispinosus, the second a (very stressed ) blue ram, Mikrogeophagus ramirezi.

 

[Byron]

I concur with fluttermoth on the pictured fish species. And also, yes, they do require soft water. If you remove your rift lake fish, these will suit your water. But do not get either until the rift lake fish are gone; they will not get along aside from the water issue.

Something should be mentioned about the blue or common ram...it needs warmer temperatures than many of our "tropical" species prefer. The Bolivian will be fine at "normal" tropical temperatures in the mid to upper 70's, but the blue ram needs 80F minimum. This is important to keep in mind because other fish that do not appreciate this warmth will not be healthy. So before acquiring either of these (and they cannot be kept together in this small a tank) keep the temp requirement in mind. Example, with the blue ram, you would have much fewer possible tankmates; neons for example would literally burn out at such warm temperatures, whereas they could go in with the Bolivian if the temp was around 75-76F max.

Another issue with either ram is numbers. Males are, like all cichlids, territorial, but it goes beyond just this. A "pair" only works if they are male/female that have accepted each other and bonded. Two males will fight until there is only one. Two females might or might not co-exist. A male/female that did not bond will not usually live long before one is dead. The Bolivian Ram is an ideal single-specimen cichlid, as it rarely has issues with other non-cichlids.