Muppeholic
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Well, it's been a month since I posted on this. We seem to have hit a stall here. Nothing gets rid of the infection 100 percent it seems.
However, one of the problems is that for some unknown reason my pH keeps lowering itself! It's been maintaining at 6.0 pH. Our tap water pH is 7.6 so every time we do a 25% change the pH jumps to 6.4 (sometimes a little more) but it doesn't maintain there. The LFS hypothesis is that the nitrogen cycle bacteria has been "trained" for that pH. (His example was that if the water stays at a certain pH for say a month the bacteria will "learn" that pH and excrete it.) I was wondering if anyone else had heard of this? The LFS suggested we remove the bio-wheel and see if that aids in clearing out the 6.0 pH bacteria. We have also added a pH stabilizer (one that is supposed to gradually increase pH up to 7.0).
I believe the fish will not recover really until we can stabilize the pH on this matter. All the other paramaters except a slight increase in ammonia of .25 are normal or are not a factor. Does anyone have any other suggestions?
However, one of the problems is that for some unknown reason my pH keeps lowering itself! It's been maintaining at 6.0 pH. Our tap water pH is 7.6 so every time we do a 25% change the pH jumps to 6.4 (sometimes a little more) but it doesn't maintain there. The LFS hypothesis is that the nitrogen cycle bacteria has been "trained" for that pH. (His example was that if the water stays at a certain pH for say a month the bacteria will "learn" that pH and excrete it.) I was wondering if anyone else had heard of this? The LFS suggested we remove the bio-wheel and see if that aids in clearing out the 6.0 pH bacteria. We have also added a pH stabilizer (one that is supposed to gradually increase pH up to 7.0).
I believe the fish will not recover really until we can stabilize the pH on this matter. All the other paramaters except a slight increase in ammonia of .25 are normal or are not a factor. Does anyone have any other suggestions?