Biggest mistake ever

[Shigshwa]

Sadly, my tap water from where I come from has an alkalinity that could make someone mistake it for bleach, so I must use PH down often. After changing adding some aged and chlorine treated water (I assumed the PH would be normal after this), I notice that the PH jumps from 6.8 to 7.8. What happens next? Well...

Danio fry + 1 PH levels worth of PH Down = DEATH.

They were doing fine for an hour or two, but after coming back I notice that fry littered the floor....

What a terrible mistake.

 

[Flossie]

What is the actual ph? Mine is 8.2 out of tap... It's probably jumping from low to high bc u are trying to change it and lower it. Ph and hardness are two different things... Ph swings are very dangerous for your fishies

 

[jcolon]

to AA!

It is more important to have a stable pH than try to get a specific pH. There are plenty of members with tap pH in the 8.2 - 8.4 range and their fish do fine ... fish will adapt to pH higher than what's "recommended" It the pH swings like you mention that can kill them.

 

[Shigshwa]

to AA!

It is more important to have a stable pH than try to get a specific pH. There are plenty of members with tap pH in the 8.2 - 8.4 range and their fish do fine ... fish will adapt to pH higher than what's "recommended" It the pH swings like you mention that can kill them.

Yeah. I'm too used to keeping hardy fish. My danios could easily take a massive swing in pH with no problems at all.

 

[jcolon]

Yeah. I'm too used to keeping hardy fish. My danios could easily take a massive swing in pH with no problems at all.

That's why I'm looking into starting my next tank (55 gal) with Danio's after cycling. I've heard they are very hardy fish.

 

[Ziggs180]

I have a very similar problem, my tap water has a PH of about 8.8, However i dont use any chemicals. after applying conditioner, the water PH goes down after about 48 hours since most of the CO2 is gone to about 8.0. However i have a planted tank which makes the PH go down even more to about 7.4. Do you have driftwood in the tank? i heard some can help stabalize PH.

 

[napow]

from where i lived, are tap water have lots of bleach or whatever they call it too... so basically what I do is fill up some bucket of the tap water. leave it topless outside for a day to a few days (the long the better but I always leave it for only a day) it work perfectly well for my fishes...))

 

[ChizerBunoi]

If your using a ph down product directly at water change, the aged water will also need to be at the same ph prior to adding to your tank.

I wouldn't worry about changing the ph unless you found that the parents breeded better at the lower ph (or you are using co2 injection). If your totally set on having a specific ph range then go with either co2 injection on a solenoid/ph controller or use some seachem acid buffer (waste of money in my opinion).

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