Ph too high/low

[aftyrant]

So I have set up a planted tank a few weeks ago let it set for 4days with just plants in it bought some fish (2Rams 2 starbai Corey's and a peacock gidgeon) everything was going fine until took like 3weeks for petstore to get a shipment of female guppys (guppys being Maine thing I wanted) got 3 females and a male all healthy looking leaving the petstore. 1 died within 24 hrs no sign of illness just dead then 1 of my Corey's died and noticed white spots on 1 of my female guppys which lasted about a week (every other female I tried to replace my dying 1 with died within hrs) then 1 of my rams just up and died and now female ram is covered in white spots so I now have an ich infestation and water problem went and got water tested at pet store immediately looked at the results like your ph is the lowest this strip will read nothing will survive long in this water. So she pointed me to ph up which besides the full liquid test kit was sold out so I bought the kit.... According to my results ph is way high so I been adding ph down for past 2 days and seeing 0 results which test was right and how do I fix it? (As for ich I treated for a week with no result just got worse so I increased water temp from 75-80)


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[aftyrant]

Actually starting to think white spots may just be sand because looked yesterday morn ram was fine later that night covered in spots this am covered still about 3hrs ago still some white but not as much and now covered again


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[Fresh2o]

I think pH is the least of your problems. You should instead buy a decent liquid test kit (online prices are pretty good) such as the API Freshwater Master Test kit and do the testing yourself. That way you can get a full picture of what is going on with your tanks. And not rely on the store staff who should have tested ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate and discussed their findings with you.
First off, you do not mention anything about cycling this tank. If you are not familiar with the subject, go to the Freshwater>Getting Started section and look for it in the "Stickies".
Secondly, using chemicals such as pH up or pH down can do more harm than good. Fish are adaptable to a range of pH, however, sudden changes can be lethal.


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[aftyrant]

I got the full Api master test today after checking everything is good but the ph is 7.8 my nitrates could be lower they are right at highest recommendation (40ppm) and the tank is cycled its actually a little more bthen a month in now I got it before Christmas


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[Laeris]

Unless you're dealing with sensitive fish, pH isn't a huge deal. There's a correlation between kH, gH and pH. I look at kH and gH more than pH as I have snails and other inverts with shells to look out for and these are better to tinker with than pH. Corydoras range is up to 7.6, and 7.8 isn't far enough from that to kill it.

What was your temp set to? What hardness is your water? If you were at a median temp for requirements on each species and your water is around 15dgH or less, it isn't likely your water. Did you acclimate to temp, then drip or gradually introduce (scoop in water) to acclimate the fish to your tank water? It may be a single sick fish infected the rest of your tank. The only thing to do is treat and ride it out. Any additional fish should get quarantined before they're added to your tank.

 

[Coursair]

How big is the tank ?
Like people said
What are your test results for
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate ?


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