Alkaselzer anyone???

[freefour]

Hi everyone . my tank had a bacteria infection on one of my golds , I used Melafix (day 3 now) and the red streaks are almost completly gone on my calico fantail . Showing some pep now . I had heard of putting a couple of alkaselzers in the tank to bring the PH down seems to work brought it down to 7.2 from 8.4. The fish are showing real pep too . Thought I was gonna loose them. Has anyone else used the alkaselzer befor and did it help or hurt your tank? Is it like an old wives tale and all this is coinsidence or it actualy works. Thanks for the imput.

 

[rich311k]

I dont know if alka selter would hurt your fish or not, it is a medication however. I for one would not do it. I wonder if the PH drop came from the CO2 released and if your PH is going to go right back up.

 

[Jchillin]

Unfortunately, any artificial additives to a tank is temporary and to be sure, a ph drop that high is not a good thing.

Why did you feel you needed to bring the ph down in order to treat the fish?

 

[freefour]

Well it has always been high ( I used spring water , althought I am going to start useing tap with Bio Safe , I do that when I'm cleaning ) I've read so much about what very hard water will do to the fish (fin rot and others) and with the recent illness and almost loseing one don't to take a chance on it again. Plus he is showing so much pep now, I mean a real improvement ( of corse most of that is from the Melafix ,by the way I should use this for a whole week been 3 days now , will it hurt the fish if used for the rest of the week?) Thank for the speedy reply.

 

[rokinrandy]

wow this is interesting.. it does neutralize the acid content in the stomach relieving heartburn..
i have read from experts that you should not drop the levels that fast though..
i think it is .5 a day until the recommended level is reached???
but i do not see how the chemicals from the alka seltzer itself would hurt if added moderately, being it is all stuff found in ours and the fishes natural environment as well...
i would like to learn more about this

 

[Lonewolfblue]

If the ph drop was due to the CO2 released, the ph will just go right back up shortly. I don't think the ph shift would hurt the fish too much if it is due to the CO2. But if it's due to something that affects the kh, it's definitely not a good thing.

 

[jsoong]

The ingredient in Alkaselzer is Aspirin, Na bicarbonate (baking soda) and citric acid. I suspect that your pH drop is likely due to CO2 released. It is possible that the citrate, being a buffer of sorts, can alter the pH as well.

The way to find out is to check the pH again. If the ph effect is due to CO2, it should be gone in a few hours. Anything longer lasting must be due to other stuff in the tabs.

I don't think that your fish's apparent improvement has anything to do with the pH at all. If anything, the drastic pH change will stress the fish & bring on problems (which might show up a few days later in the form of opportunistic infections due to weakened immunity). In general, it is not wise to change the pH more than 0.2 at any one time, and preferably much slower.

Although high pH is cited as cause for problem, I think that it is really true in a small number of fish. (Some would argue that even sensitive fish will adapt to high pH, and that you should never doctor the water .... eg. BrianNY here reported that he had got discus to spawn at hard water way outside of their pH preference.) At any rate, goldies prefers harder water and will do just fine with pH around 8. I don't see any need to change your pH at all.

 

[freefour]

Thnks for the responses guys. The PH did go back up to were it was befor . The golds are doing fine the red streaks are completely gone on the callico fantail and she's swimming like befor. Her appitite is still a little weak but improveing daily .

 

[crazyred]

I would be VERY careful about using Alka Seltzer any where near a tank....I've heard of peopl using it to euthanize a sick fish!!!

 

[malkore]

In the future, keep human medications out of your fish tank, and consult us first before experimenting with living creatures.

 

[rokinrandy]

The ingredient in Alkaselzer is Aspirin, Na bicarbonate (baking soda) and citric acid.

oops..i forgot they had aspirin ..that's probably bad in the tank..
i have been told to use baking soda from a friend of mine because it's cheap :? i still went out bought this big bottle of ph stuff from fish pharmecutical to lower the levels.
heck whats 5 bucks for the reasurance of something you know that is safe and effective and won't cloud the water???

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Just remember the ph stuff is only temporary, and you will get ph swings. I personally stay away from any of those products, much more stressful on a fish than a steady high ph. I know that even at a ph of 8.4, if the ph remains stable, a lot of fish will adapt just fine to it.

 

[rokinrandy]

Just remember the ph stuff is only temporary, and you will get ph swings. I personally stay away from any of those products, much more stressful on a fish than a steady high ph. I know that even at a ph of 8.4, if the ph remains stable, a lot of fish will adapt just fine to it.

i did not consider that chemicals are stressfull and i thought it was the way to make the fish happy??? so the whole time i thought i was helping these guys i was stressing them out???
what are the other methods and where did you learn about them..i plan on buying discuss after a while and i think those guys need like a 6.8 range to be happy?

 

[Lonewolfblue]

You can actually drive the ph down 2 different ways that is much safer than chemicals. One way is adding a couple bigger pieces of driftwood. It will release tannins, which is tannic acid, which will lower the ph some, and will lower it slowly over time. The other way of driving the ph down safely is with CO2 injection. It's great for planted tanks, but if not planted, I guess it could be used if you really need to lower the ph, and then run a ph controller to hold the ph at a certain level. A 3rd way is mixing in some RO/Distilled water to your tap water, but that will also bring down your buffers some, and if brought down too much, will make the ph become somewhat unstable. My tap ph is around 7.8 out of my faucet, and after having 2 pieces of driftwood in my 2 tanks for a couple months and doing normal PWC's without altering the ph, my ph was hovering around 7.2, and even got to 7.0 on occasion, in the tank. In my planted tank I also have driftwood, as well as CO2 injection driving my ph down to 6.4-6.6.

But also remember, even at higher ph's, fish are still happy if the ph is stable. They WILL acclimate just fine. There aren't too many fish that are too fragile to acclimate and be happy. If the ph is stable, you will have happy fish.

So my recommendation? If you feel you need to bring down your ph a little bit, get 2 nice sized pieces of driftwood, and either boil them or soak them for 3-4 weeks, and then add to the tank. My preference is either African or Malaysian, as they instantly sink and won't have problems with it floating. Then after adding to the tank and the water starts turning a little brownish color (tea colored), that's just tannins and are safe for the fish. You can run carbon to remove it. So that's my 2 cents worth. It's the safest way to bring the ph down some over time.

And the biggest key to happy fish is PH STABILITY. NO CHEMICALS.