caro12 Posted October 9, 2013 Report Share Posted October 9, 2013 Hi Have just lost a bn pleco, balloon molly and now a bloodfin terta. Tested my water levels and my ammonia is 0, nitrite 0, nitrates just gone up to about 30 and my pH has dropped to 6.4. I am running de-nitrate and purgien and doing water changes for the nitrate. My pH was originally high so got some driftwood to bring down but seems too low now. Any suggestions how to bring up? Tap water is 7.6 Am at a loss, so upset about losing my fish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godly3vil Posted October 9, 2013 Report Share Posted October 9, 2013 6.4 is perfectly fine for your fish, I would doubt that its the cause of your losses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caro12 Posted October 9, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2013 Thanks. Am just not sure what is going wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted October 9, 2013 Report Share Posted October 9, 2013 Nothing is going wrong, it is normal for pH to fluctuate to a certain degree, more so if you have low hardness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v8jaggy8 Posted October 9, 2013 Report Share Posted October 9, 2013 Also it is hard to judge pH best bet is to measure it the same time 3 days in a row and that will give you the average pH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caro12 Posted October 11, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2013 Went to LFS store today and got some crushed oyster shells. Was told to put in half the bag so 250gr and would bring my level up slowly over a few days. Put into my drip filter. Was sitting at about 6.5. Just checked and up to about 6.8 already, have I put in to much. Concerned raising to quickly as not having much luck, lost 3 fish in last 2 weeks. Please help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted October 11, 2013 Report Share Posted October 11, 2013 Re-read my previous post. Adding crushed shell will increase your hardness, which may be worse for your fish than any minor fluctuations in pH. A small change in pH like that will not kill your fish, in fact they won't even notice it. Stop stressing about your pH and try work out what is actually killing your fish. Tell us a little more about your set up, stock, maintenance etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caro12 Posted October 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2013 AR 980 215l with drip filter. Also running a canister filter. 2 air stones. Tank is planted, mixture of different plants and a large piece of driftwood. Have 4 scissortails, 3 balloon mollies, 5 bloodfin terta, 2 platys, 3 danio and about 15 molly fry. Water parameters are ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 10. Tank temperature between 25.5 and 26.5. 10% water changes weekly, use prime and stability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkLB Posted October 12, 2013 Report Share Posted October 12, 2013 Hi. How long has the tank been set up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caro12 Posted October 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2013 4 months now. Cycled for a month before fish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted October 12, 2013 Report Share Posted October 12, 2013 Any fish added recently? What, if any, were the symptoms before they died? I wonder if a new fish has had an infection of some sort that your other fish had not encountered before and had no resistance to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caro12 Posted October 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2013 My two platys nearly 4 weeks ago, prior to that a week before 2 female balloon mollies, one of which has passed. My albino bn lost colour, danio was swimming oddly and my balloon molly who had had the babies was sitting behind the filter bar. No marks or visible signs on any of them. Do think I was over feeding to compensate for the fry. Have cut feeding down and good gravel clean which possibly was my bn issue. May of stirred up bad bacteria? As had not gravel cleaned for two weeks (worried about sticking up fry) only water changes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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