ways to raise pH--fish sick

[Katiestl]

I posted in another area yesterday, no responses. We have one or two fish with ich. I've only had ich once before and the fish had it for three weeks before dying(that fish had something else wrong before the ich). I tried Metroplex and Paraguard last time. After dose 2 of Paraguard, the fish died plus a healthy fish died too. What med works please?


We use distilled water in our tank. Have been doing so for 5 months. I add some tap to it to help raise the pH(tap pH is like 9, distilled water is 6.2-6.6). it has been working fine. i guess the last batch of store water had a lower pH, suddenly the tank is at a 6.2-6.4?


I can't use neutral regulator as our phosphates have started to rise again. We treated months ago with phosguard and all has been normal until now. They aren't super high yet, but I won't add phosphates to the tank, it will screw everything up. I contacted Seachem to ask what products they have. They said to use the alkaline buffer they make as it contains no phosphate. Well, according to the product label, it is a phosphate buffer, so they're stupid.

There must be some other way to gradually increase pH.
I've looked everywhere, everything sounds fake or dangerous.



We have one other tank that has no phosphate issue--that fish was slow too. Her pH was also very low. We added more tap to that tank at a risk of increasing nitrates--it worked. Fish was happy within two hours. That tank is tiny, it would take another major water change to up the pH of the bigger 20 gal tank.



Here is my other post--we are desperate.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f17/2-questions-desperate-ich-369302.html

 

[SaraB]

Are you using carbon in your tank? If so you have to remove it before using medication for it to work.
I'm not sure how to raise PH, but I've been told that fish will adapt to what is in your water.

 

[King Fisher]

You shouldn't use a majority of distilled water without mineralizing it or your fish will die. I'd mix 50/50 tap and distilled. It should bring your pH up and give them the minerals they need. Although I don't think your pH is a problem at 6.2 to 6.4 depending on the fish you keep.

A good way to raise pH and keep it stable is to add crushed coral to your substrate. Another way is to add baking soda to the tank at 1 TEAspoon per 5 gallons of water. Dilute it in water first before adding.

 

[Katiestl]

Yes, obviously the carbon was removed, although for metroplex, Seachem said I didn't need to. I did remove it with the Paraguard last time and nothing worked--fish died, even healthy appearing fish. So, do I dose it again with paraguard and hope the goldfish and healthy cory do not die? The fish actually seemed better this weekend, i thought the metroplex had worked. He was swimming more and I had a hard time finding the spots. Well, now it's worse and what had looked like balls on his fins turned into kind of a peeling looking gunk--hard to see on such a small fish. Goldfish has one spot on his side, honestly it just looks as though a scale is missing--all fins are normal as is the second cory. All three eat. Plus, I saw the cory ingest the metroplex.



Is there something I can use to add minerals back to the distilled water? If I add half tap water, my nitrates shoot way up, plus the pH of our tap is so high that it will go to an 8.2. No, I cannot find anything anywhere stating that 6.2pH is OK for Goldfish and Cories. The API tests themselves say it's too low.


You can buy distilled water with minerals re-added--it's for babies' formula. Or I could try purified water with the distilled.


Thanks for the response.

 

[King Fisher]

Actually cories can take a pH under 6 (5.5) but also adapt to high ph. Goldfish should be over 7.0 and they don't seem to do well below 7.0.

I'd use spring water or alkaline water in your situation. Have you mixed 50/50 tap and distilled, let it sit for 24 hours and then tested it? What is half of the nitrates of your tap water?

You can add trace mineral drops to your distilled water.

Carbon will remove meds in a tank no matter what it is. I know some meds like Metroplex and Paragaurd won't kill beneficial bacteria though.

 

[Arthur11]

I use baking soda to raise ph in my fish tank. It is easy to do, economical, and cheap, does not need expertise, not that meticulous, All that I need is water, and of course, baking soda, a material so common available almost anywhere, everywhere, anytime.

 

[Caliban07]

Honestly I would just use your tap water. There’s nothing wrong with it and trying to create what you believe to be ideal parameters is only making things worse.

Firstly, pH isn’t an issue. Here are three facts that I can use to convince you that pH, nitrates and Phosphates are not causing harm to your fish.

Planted tank enthusiasts dose 21 parts per million and almost 2ppm phosphate every week as part of their fertiliser regimen. They also inject 30ppm carbon dioxide which depresses the pH level by 1 point usually by the time the light comes on. If there was an issue with these three parameters then every planted tank enthusiast that keep fish would have reported issues many moons ago.

An ion is an ion when in solution. All fish really care about is having their oxygen demands met and keeping their exposure to harmful compounds like ammonia, nitrites, and chlorine low. They like to be kept in suitably size tanks with minimal congestion with appropriate tank mates.

Exposure to the latter often results in stress, disease and sometimes death.

I wouldn’t personally recommend sodium bicarbonate to raise pH because some freshwater fish and plants are particularly susceptible high numbers of sodium ions. If you want to raise the pH (even though it doesn’t need raising) I would tend to go for calcium or magnesium carbonate or dolomite powder. All three can be sourced on eBay usually as food additives.

You can use a calculator like Rotala butterfly to calculate how much to dose for your tank.