recent ph crash

[goldenpigeon]

hi all,

i have just recently had a ph crash in my display tank. i did a fairly large water change on my tank (about 45 - 50%) and double dosed on the neutralizer (just to make sure all was good).

apparently here is where i went wrong:
gold coast water is at about 6.4 - 7ph which couldnt make me any happier. anyway acording to goarge from G&S (i took him a water sample to be tested) because i used so much neutralizer the ph crashed down to 5.4 in 1 water change! so i actually nuked my tank (accidental! ) this meant the slime coating had burned off of them!. however i had seeked help just in time and my fish are medicated and on the mend (so it looks) .

things i noticed when this happened:
seemed to be sulking/ hid
bad colour
some of them went very dark
whitish film growning on them (this was because the slime coat had been burnt off them)


the good thing is that when i noticed this behavior i treated them immediatly with a large dose of geo-liquid. this took the ph up a bit i think (it could have been at about 5.0!!!)

i hope they make a full recovery.

i assumed you could double dose on the neutralizer because i had read several post made by people stating that they double dosed at every water change

[leanne31]

Gee David I dont know what went wrong for you but its got me a bit worried now as I double dose even sometimes triple dose with my neutralizer and Ive never had a problem (cross fingers) my lfs told me to always double dose as the chlorine etc is so bad in the water at the moment I may have to stop doing that if thats what could happen but at the moment I have a problem with my ph rising its good out the tap 6.8 to 7 leave it to age and up it goes its a real pain well I'm glad everythings on the mend for you though and I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Leanne

[goldenpigeon]

thanx leanne yer i never actually got the chlorine tested in the tap water. so it may just be that. yer that is what i am told about the neutralizer. everything was perfect from what i know. the tank is a little overstocked (with discus in terms of picking order ect.) but i am in the process of getting more tanks so it shouldnt really be an issue.

the only thing i added at the water change was a double dose of neutralizer. unless the gold coast water has had a crash that is the only possibility.

[leanne31]

did you have your hardness tested david as I know really soft water will cause your ph to crash.

Leanne

[goldenpigeon]

yes the water on the gold coast is both soft with a ph of 6.5 - 7.0 atm. i thought this was the reason it went so low. i didnt go and get the water tested myself as i had to go to skool.

[leanne31]

Maybe your ph crash was due to your water being really soft have you tried adding a handful of shell grit to your tank to raise the hardness a bit

Leanne

[goldenpigeon]

no i did that about 3 years ago with 3 small shells cleaned and all and lost all the fish. i guess i could try it again

[goldenpigeon]

ok this is for u leanne especially.

i found out the problem today and this is what i found:

over time i had been putting just a tad to much neutralizer in my tank (how long i have no idea). there has been a build up and eventually (now) it has peaked and bombed to ph down to about 5.4 in 2 hours (from about 6.8)!!!! this burned their slime coats off of them.

i also found out that it is better to underdose than over dose with neutralizer. underdosing wont do anything to them. the best way to do it is do the same W/C every time do that you know the exact dosage rate.

i have treated the fish with triple sulfa (or sulfate cant remember what it is called). this will stop any infection. soon i will carry out another W/C and if they are still looking fairly unwell dose them with more triple then a couple of days later do another W/C. once the triple sulfa course has been carried out i will start W/C every second day and treat with stress coat. also i need to keep the ph quite low and feed less to stop any ammonia build up (this will cause infection). i am also keeping the water at 32 degrees.

hope this works out for the best

[leanne31]

thanks for that david I guess I better use the correct dose of neutralizer from now on gee I hope your fish all get better dont you hate it when something goes wrong which could of been avoided but then everyone learns from mistakes and at least you know this is something thats not gonna happen again as long as your 100% sure it was the neutralizer and it wasnt from another source good luck with your fish david I hope they make a full recovery.

Leanne

[goldenpigeon]

thanx leanne yer they are recovering well. yes we all learn from mistakes and yes it was definetly from the neutralizer.

i was on such a good run for about more than 8 months there and everything in my tank was perfect. o well we live and we learn