Dead Gouramis

[Mumma.of.two]

My pH is 8.2 which seems high from everything I have read.

Ok. Might see what someone else has to say about that but my pH is 7.8 and I've never had a problem in any of my tanks.

 

[siva]

I got a water kit and my ph is too high as well as my ammonia levels. The fish store won't keep them indefinitely and my son can't bear to part with them so I am planning daily water changes of 25% of the tank for the ammonia and am also adding gravel from another aquarium to help jump start the biological filter. I also need to find a good ph reducer - what does everyone recommend? Also, do the ammonia neutralizers/detoxifiers really work?

You don't know what your pH will be until your cycle finishes. It may drop significantly at the end of the cycle. You don't want to add anything to mess with the pH at this point. If after cycling it is still that high, you may want to add some peat to lower it. I would never add pH reducing solutions in a bottle. You may want to test the pH of the way straight from your tap, and see if it is also that high.

If you could get some filter media from another aquarium to add to your filter, that would help a lot more than gravel.

Use Seachum Prime to dechlorinate your water. Add enough to the new water for the whole tank, not just the water you are adding. It should detoxify the remaining ammonia and nitrite for 24 hours. Remember, nitrite is more toxic to fish than ammonia, and after your ammonia spikes, your nitrite will.

 

[librarygirl]

Hi, you're getting good advice here. 25% water changes per day in an uncycled, improperly stocked tank won't be enough, I'm afraid. You want to let your test kit dictate when to do water changes and how often. Test the water daily (twice per day in your case may be best) and any time ammonia and/or nitrite is over .25 do a water change to get them down as close to 0 as you can. keep in mind that if the levels are .5, for example, a 50% water change would only get them down to .25 which is still borderline. S0 you may be doing larger water changes once or twice per day for some time (4-8 weeks on average just to give you an idea). If you aren't prepared for that, please return the fish until the tank cycles properly. Still, I think at least some of those fish are going to need to be returned/rehomed.