Tap water from hell

[laboul]

So I just got into tropical fishkeeping two months ago. I have had one heck of a time. First I didn't know about cycling and for various reasons I've had 4 fish and a snail now die on me. But for the past month I've been doing things by the book and not understanding what the heck I could still be doing wrong. I have left: 2 platies, 2 one month old black molly fry who are my strongest fish and could probably now make it through a nuclear blast, and 2 juvenile mollies.

I decided to check out a different lfs last night after realizing yesterday that my TAP water has a base level of 0.25 ppm ammonia !? I knew my tank water had ammonia but didnt' understand why and here I was just doing water changes thinking I was overfeeding. Also this crazy water has a pH of 8.0 !!!? Actually it could be even higher but my test kit doesn't go up further!

She said this bad water is not uncommon in the area and it actually forced one lfs to another location. !! She said she makes all her own RO water, adjusts the pH to 6.7, and I can buy a 5 gallon bucket of it for $3. Her tanks were gorgeous, she had live plants, I didn't see one sick fish, her bettas were in big bowls or tanks and she even sold lots of female bettas for a change....

THANK YOU GOD..... a decent fish shop.... if I can pull through this Ick crisis my tank might survive...

 

[yvez9]

If you're gonna use RO water, you'll need some sort of buffer to add minerals to it

make the change over slowly. Maybe doing a 10% water change every day for 10 days or so

I'm glad you found out about your problem.

 

[Jen]

Where is said fish store? I'm going to be in Toronto tomorrow, so I might try and check it out.