Weak Gourami

[colleen0309]

A sudden ph change can cause problems, but if you acclimate the fish slowly, they will adapt to the higher ph. Changing the ph chemically can lead to ph flucuations. Be careful if you are using chemicals. I use peat in my filter to lower the ph. Bog wood and driftwood will also lower it.

 

[thegabzzz]

thanks, but i bought powder that is put into the water every fortnight to slowly neutralize the PH, what do you thing about this? and my two golden gouramis i have are acting different since i started using the chemical, before they used to stay under a volcano ornament but now the stay up top.

 

[the_lock_man]

i went to my lfs today and had a test done, turns out theres no problem, ammonia 0, nitrite 0. (they used a liquid tester). It turns out my previous fish died of sud
den change of PH, so i bought a chemical that changes it to nuetral.
I also bought home 4 columbian tetras, and 10 rummy nose tetras becuase i heard they were tough fish and would cope with the high PH levels (7.6)

I'm interested to know who diagnosed the sudden pH swing, and what evidence they used to come to that conclusion. Nothing you have said on this forum would indicate that you had suffered this.

As I understand it, you had a problem with a single fish. A catastophic change in pH, severe enough to cause the gourami to become weak, would probably have affected other fish as well.

If you are going to use the chemical you have bought, you need to use it to the letter of the instructions. If anything goes wrong, it could potentially cause the issue you've bought it to prevent. There is nothing wrong with a pH of 7.6, far from it. Mine is 7.8.

I'm not saying that it definitely wasn't the problem, but I am very sceptical.

 

[thegabzzz]

i think i didnt explain it clearly enough, sorry. there was no sudden change in ph levels, the problem was that at the fish store the ph was nuetral, in my tank the ph was 7.6, so when ever i added any new fish they would become stressed out and die, i have lost 2 gouramis and an angel becuase of this.

 

[the_lock_man]

OK, I'm with you now.

In that case, a proper acclimatisation procedure will be all you need, not chemicals.

If you trawl through KittyKat's posts, she has a really good acclimatisation routine, but the basis is to float the bag for 20 minutes, then put a small amount into the bag every 5-10 mins for the next 90-120 mins. This will gradually adjust the pH of the water in the bag towards that of the tankwater, and it won't be a shock to them when they are released.

There is more potential for disaster with the chemicals.

 

[thegabzzz]

so what your saying is stop using the chemicals and just use a sort of drop procedure? where i float the bag and every 15-30 mins i add a little bit of the tank water into the bag? so it doesnt shock them?

 

[the_lock_man]

I would go a small amount every 5-10 mins, but yes, that's the way I do it. And yes to stopping using the chemicals.

 

[thegabzzz]

ok, i will try that next time i buy fish, thanks for your help.
overall (even after the few deaths) i am very happy with my tank, it looks really good.

 

[thegabzzz]

i've gotta be going now, thanks for your help anyway. (its 1 am here in austraila) CYA!

 

[colleen0309]

I try to avoid chemicals in my tanks. If there is a natural way of fixing a problem, I try that first. Most fish can adjust to the ph of your tapwater if they are acclimatized to it slowly. The_lock_man is right, you don't need chemicals to adjust your ph. Slowly adjust your fish, not the water. If you treat the water to get the proper ph, it will change every time you do a water change unless you add more chemicals.

 

[thegabzzz]

hi, sorry i havent posted for a while, i have bad news though.
last week when i got my water checked at my lfs, the man that did it was a new worker so he didnt know what he was doing, he told us that there was 0 ammonia, today i went and checked the water again and it turns out i have about 6 or 7 ammonia. i bought prime and stable chemicals which are meant to lower the ammonia, i also did a 30% water change. what do i do now? will the fish that are still left survive?
i lost one albino, a platy and the ghost knife the day before yesterday. can i still save my other fish??

 

[the_lock_man]

OMG - 6-7ppm ammonia? I'm amazed anything is surviving, if that's true.

Priority 1 Keep your ammonia and nitrite levels down to under 0.25ppm at all times. It's a good thing that you did a 30% change, but that still leaves you 4.2ppm. Do a 75% change, and then another one.

Priority 2 Get you own liquid test kit - you need to be testing daily and maybe even twice-daily, so you can see what your levels are. If you don't feel you can afford a master kit (with around 10 different tests in it), for now just get ammonia and nitrite - then start saving for nitrate and pH.

How long have you had the tank set up? How did you cycle the filter?

 

[thegabzzz]

i did a fish in cycle, all my fished survived. i am really mad with my lfs of what happened. do you think i deserve a refund or something for all the trouble they have caused? i will do a water change asap.

 

[the_lock_man]

i did a fish in cycle, all my fished survived. i am really mad with my lfs of what happened. do you think i deserve a refund or something for all the trouble they have caused? i will do a water change asap.

How long ago was that? If your filter is properly cycled, then you wouldn't have an ammonia reading of 6-7ppm.

 

[thegabzzz]

that was about 3 and a half weeks ago, but i also changed the media in the filter yesterday without knowing about the ammonia, will this impact anything? (i changed the filter wool but not the carbon)