low ph effects on fish??

[sunryze]

hi ,, tanks been up and running for a month now thanks to the lfs we did it all backwards, all been surprising good untill today , all test come up great ,cycled quick using biospiro stuff, added fish about 1 week into it , great for 1 week , added more and live rock , all fine 1 week , added more 2 days ago , this morning 3 fish acting distressed , hugging corners or top of tank , coral beauty looks like having trouble breathing , yellow tang rubbing on rocks , green cromis seems to be picking ssomething off it ,?? but i cant see a thing on it, when i tested this morning my ph was very low 7.9 so i did a water change and that fixed it , all other levels are good,, could it have been the ph level being so low making them act sick or do i have a bigger problem

tank specs::

125 gal, 2 aqualights , cascade 1500 canister filter , powerhead , heater ,
cribsea substrait , crushed florida coral , 2 6-8" peices of live rock with nothing on them but a few baby featherdusters , fake barnicle decorations and 2 peices bleached coral ,

cycled with:

2 mated maroon clowns
1 yellow tang
2 green cromis
3 pajama cardnials
1 coral beauty angel

added after 2 weeks :

1 peice live rock w/ a turbo snail
1 mandarine dragonet
1 purple sea slug
2 red hermit crabs

added 2 days ago:
1 liverock w/ a few baby featherdusters on it
1 banded coral shrimp
1 arrow crab
4 hermit crabs

 

[lando]

Welcome to AquariumAdvice.com!!!
there are several issues going on here. First, I do not think your tank is cycled completely and it should not have that much livestock in it. Products like Bio-Spira can make water parameters appear to be okay, but they do not prepair the tank for the long term. The only thing you can do is wait. The benificial bacteria produced by the cyling process just take time to develope. There is really no product or chemical that can make it happen instantly (as Bio-spira claims). Second of all, I think you added way too many fish way too quickly for such a young tank. When adding livestock to a young tank it much be done VERY slowly. This will give the tank's biological filter a chance to catch up with the increased bioload. If increase the bioload too fast you will "overpower" the filtering capabilities of the tank and cause it to almost cycle again. When this happens there is really no way to :catch up", the best course of action is to remove the livestock and let your tank cycle naturally and comepletly. Can you tell us your current water paramters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, SG and temp) along with the amount of LR in the tank? I might also suggest investing in a good book on SW aquariums. I like "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist" by Robert Fenner. The signs you are discribing make me think of an ammonia or nitrite spike. While your Ph is little on the low side it is not too bad. If you are following the advice of the LFS it might be time to find another one. You did find the best site n the net for aquarium support. Keep us posted and good luck...Lando

 

[sunryze]

hi thanks for repyling so quickly , we know now all to late about overstocking and biospiro myths,, sigh... found a good book thats what started the questions flowing, sigh again,,

just tested now (11.55am)

temp is 77
ph - 8.2 -since the water change at 9 this morning
amonia -0
nitrite -0
nitrate-5-10
sg - 1.022

 

[sunryze]

the book i have is ' natural reef aquariums ' by john tullock
and theres only 2 peices of 6-8' live rock in it that only has a few baby feather dusters probably dosnt weigh more then 10 pounds

 

[lando]

the book i have is ' natural reef aquariums ' by john tullock

I have this book as well and reference it often. Water parameters look pretty good right now. Might want to bump up the temp a couple of degrees. The water change will help, just keep an eye on the fish. If you still notice symptoms I would remove them from the tank and give it some time to cycle.

 

[sunryze]

thanks ill do that ,,, and keep posting