sick fish from a dramatic change in ph, what can i do?

[floridaman]

i just recently changed my substrate to eco complete, i had another post about my angels stressing and dying and acting very strange, after some research me and my fish store live stock manager found out something that was not expected , eco complete caused my ph to take a dramatic climb from 6.0 to 7.6 , i have moved a couple of my angels to my hospital tank, the others are not doing as bad, i have been doing a water change once a day using ro water and tap with a 25% to 30% change. are there any other ways i can treat this, from what we have read after a couple weeks the ph starts to go back to normal.

 

[absolutangel04]

So, why do you think the issue is the pH? It may have risen, but the pH is also different every time you get a new fish and put it in your tank form a different tank, especially if you had it shipped to you. Fish adjust to that, especially a fish like an angel that has been bred for many generations in captivity. My guess is that your substrate change would have have affected them anymore than just getting a new ship shipped to your place and acclimating to your tank. Also, why are you using ro water for a freshwater tank? Is your tap especially bad? I am not saying that it is for sure not your pH, but that sounds fairly unlikely to me to be honest. But, my hunch could be wrong. After all, something is a going on clearly. I have a few questions to help sort out the root of the goings on and try to get your some help before more fishes die.
When did you change the substrate? How long afterwards did the issues start? What are your other parameters? How long have you had the angels? What sort of changes in behavior? Do you have a test kit, or is all of this being tested at the lfs?
If it is your pH, just ride it out. Not much you can do to change that at this point. I know that is not news you wanted to hear, but the change has already happened and there isn't really anything you can do just change it back instantly. 7.6 is not all out of the range that angels do fine in, so I don't think it is worth your time to try and mess with it anymore. If there is an issue from the pH, it would be from a sudden change, not from the final number. Therefore, I think stability would now be more important than achieving any specific number for your pH.

 

[MICEY]

that is a big change and could stress or even shock the fish if done very quickly
I would keep all the fish in a different tank till you get the water acidy or at least neutral

 

[floridaman]

The reasoning for using the r.o water was to help bring the ph down closer to neutral without doing so quickly .. I only added 10 gallons of it to a 25% change then topped off with tap water... I have a test kit and I check it once a week before my water changes on all my tanks .. some of the angels that start this behavior first were some I have had for the last 4 months .. the newest atleast all but 3 are recovering and acting normal again .. feeding good .. I.changed out the substrate 2 days before this started happening witch was last wed I believe and I noticed on Friday while I started a drip acclimation on a new juevenile koi angle .. the only reason I was trying to bring it down before was because of how soon it had happen now that I'm fairly a week into it I'm just hoping the rest pull through ..





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[floridaman]

It's killing me .. my female marble veil ive had for months that was also apart of my one and only paired off angles died this morning .. I've lost 5 angles , 2 juevenile rainbows , 2 neon tetras , and 2 siamiese alge eaters and my male ram isn't looking good.. I've had him for 5 1/2 months .. hes seperated from the 55 but.his scales look like a snake with its shedding .. so I've been treating it with melafix and I use pimafix also

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