lmsmith Posted April 14, 2009 Report Share Posted April 14, 2009 A few weeks ago, I bought some really awesome bricks for my tank. I didn't even think to test the pH because I've used similar things before and they worked great. I've had some dems in there for about a week, and they are colouring up nicely and seem like happy campers. Today, I started adding some lionhead cichlids into the tank, after doing a 60% w/c (with decholronated rainwater). I acclimatised them over a period of about an hour and 1/2 because I was doing other things. I put about 15 in in total, and was planning on adding the adults and the rest of the babies tomorrow, depending on whether or not there was a massive turf war. I went down to check on them a while ago and to turn off their light, and saw 2 dead lionheads. I looked around, and found 9 in total. I tested ammonia, nitrates and nitrites, all really low, everything was looking good. I decided to test the pH because the fish looked really red and burnt around the gills (which is why my immediate thought was ammonia). My pH was 8.8 according to my chart. I did a 70% water change with water from another tank where the pH is 6.0. After the water change, the pH was still reading 8.8 (as high as the chart goes). My pH must insanely high to cause that reading. I've since taken all the bricks out, done another water change with fresh water, and moved the remaining lionheads into a holding tank. I've also put a brick in a bucket to test what the pH can get to (I know someone with an electronic pH meter). I'm sad to have lost all my fish, and also sad that my awesome bricks can't be used. However, it is my fault for not testing them first Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted April 14, 2009 Report Share Posted April 14, 2009 oh no that's terrible what sort of bricks were they? i know the concrete ones cause the pH of water to go up. It sucks when this sort of thing happens.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted April 14, 2009 Report Share Posted April 14, 2009 even old bricks can still leach sometimes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsmith Posted April 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2009 Yeah, they're asphalt type bricks, but they're sealed (according to the manufacturer) to prevent leaching. I had them soaked for a couple of weeks too, just in case, but obviously they're not fish tank ready. Well, at least I didn't loose all the fish, and I've learnt from my mistake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ktttk Posted April 14, 2009 Report Share Posted April 14, 2009 Sorry to hear whats happened. Did you lose the dems as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsmith Posted April 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2009 Nah, apart from the 2 I lost initially, all the others are alive and looking fantastic. Their colours are looking great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave+Amy Posted April 15, 2009 Report Share Posted April 15, 2009 omg it's horrible! had an incident like this about two years ago when I bought the wrong type of gravel - asked for Autumn harvest and got limestone mixture ...pH shot upto 8 and lost all my silver sharks, angels and lemon tetras = all the fish in the tank hard lesson learnt though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel Posted April 15, 2009 Report Share Posted April 15, 2009 Oh no so sorry to hear, it's aweful when things like that happen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsmith Posted April 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 15, 2009 Are you sure it was the ph that killed them? I mean, I have had these types of fish (young and old) living in a very high ph before and they even bred in it. I find it surprising that you lost fish because of it! Sorry to hear about yur fish Lauren. Must be careful. I use Grey bricks and no probs. :-) Everything else in the tank was fine, and with the amount of time I acclimatised them, I would have though they would have been ok too, but apparently not. To give you an idea of how high the pH was, I took a bucket of tank water, did 5 50% water changes, and the pH was still reading 8.8 (as high as the test kit goes). I can't figure it out, but I'd rather not loose all of my beautiful big ones, so I've taken the bricks out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted April 15, 2009 Report Share Posted April 15, 2009 Everything else in the tank was fine, and with the amount of time I acclimatised them, I would have though they would have been ok too, but apparently not. I think you're right about the acclimatisation thing, when I first started keeping fish I had the same problem but at the other end of the scale. My tetras and corys that I'd had for ages were thriving, but every new fish I added to the tank died. Took the water into the shop to get tested and it was off-the-chart yellow, pH under 5.0! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave+Amy Posted April 15, 2009 Report Share Posted April 15, 2009 Are you sure it was the ph that killed them? I mean, I have had these types of fish (young and old) living in a very high ph before and they even bred in it. I find it surprising that you lost fish because of it! yup, Paul (Billaney) suggested that I do an Ammonia test and nitrates so i gave Animates a sample of my tank water and they came up negligible - so I bought some PH DOWN and did continuous WCs but the pH wouldn't come down so Paul suggested it was the gravel and I even took out ornaments that could leach - 3 days later all the fish were dead. The fish were all healthy and happy before addition to that tank and the pH was the only component that was different Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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