water test with bad results- need advice, please!

[Leonora]

Hello everyone,

I dont have a lot of experience, and I just set up my aquarium about a month ago. I tested the water today, and the results were not too good. They were:

PH: 7.8
Alkalinity: 180
Hardness: 300
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 80

What can I do to fix those? The fish I have in the aquarium are: Goldfish, guppies, and tetras. Their tails are starting to degenerate.

Thanks,
Leonora.

 

[Fruitbat]

Leonora...

Your water parameters don't sound all that bad....typical hard and alkaline Texas water. You might try a 25% water change to get the nitrate level down a bit. As for your mix of fish....the goldfish won't really be happy in a tank with temperatures that will be good for the guppies and tetras (what kind??).

Do their tails look whitish or are they just frayed a bit??

 

[Leonora]

Hello Fruitbat,

Thanks for responding to my message.
The goldfish tails look frayed.
I am sorry...the other fish are not tetras, they are Platys

Thanks again.
Leonora.

 

[Allivymar]

Coupla more questions:

What size tank, whats the temps, and whats the ammonia levels?

 

[Leonora]

Hi Allivymar,

It is a small tank, only 10 gal. The temperature is 80, and the kit I used does not check for ammonia levels.

I went to a pet store yesterday and got really upset with the owner. I told him about the situation, and he gave me a "quick” answer. He grabbed a product from the shelf and said: "here, take this one". He didn't even paid attention to what I was saying. I tried to tell him that I thought the gravel was causing the water to become alkaline, and he said" don't worry about that, we don't even check the PH in our tanks!" ...To end the story; I bought the product he told me, and got out of there really mad.

By the way, the product is called “Discus Buffer”, by Seachem.

Thanks,
Leonora.

 

[tkos]

Don't use the buffer product. Platies and guppies do fine in hard water and a ph of 7.8 isn't that hard anyway unless you have Discus or if you want to breed fish. Our tetras do fine in 7.4 ph water.

It sounds like you have too many fish in your tank. Goldfish produce a lot of waste and are actually coldwater fish. They like their water down around 70F or lower. If you can drop the tank temp a few degrees that may help. Since they are coldwater fish they actually need a highly oxygenated water to live in and the higher the water temp the less oxygen is available.

How often do you do water changes? Your fish might be succumbing to ammonia. If so then water changes will help and freshwater always makes things better.

If it is a disease in the tank then Maroxy is a good general anti fungal/bacterial medication that could definatley help.

I was in Houston a year ago and there was a great fish store on the out skirts of town (can't remember where) that had a huge selection of salt and freshwater fish and giant koi ponds.

Oh I just found a web link. http://www.aquariumworld.net/ Try these guys for some better info hopefully.

 

[jsoong]

Leonora,

Your water parameter is just about the same as mine. Your alkalinity is likely all bicarbonates (based on your pH reading).

Discus Buffer is a phosphate buffer. If you add that to pure water, it will provide buffering capacity, and will maintain water at low pH. However, with the amount of bicarbonates in your water already, adding that won't do anything, except grow algae. (Unless you add a hugh amount - not recommended due to osmolarity prob. - you won't see any pH change). I would personally return that to the lfs - esp when you think they gave you bum advice.

If you are worry about the substrate causing ph/KH prob., easy way to check is to compare the pH/KH of your tap water with that of the tank. If the 2 sets of numbers are the same, your substrate is not giving you any problems!

Finally, I don't think you have a problem with your pH or KH. My water has the same reading as yours, and my goldies do just fine. Platies should also be fine with that pH/KH. So I wouldn't fix what is NOT broken. In general, messing with water parameter is part of advance fish keeping - needed only if you are keeping exotic / tempermental species, or if you are trying to breed fish.

Your nitrates is a tad high - I try to keep mine under 10 - water change is all you need to fix that.

The fin fraying, however, is a prob. pH or KH is prob not the issue. Much more common is ammonia or nitrite probs. I would suggest you start from there.

 

[Leonora]

My poor fish...

Hello tkos and jsoong,

Thanks so much for responding.
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of adding a little of that product to the water. I did that before checking my messages (I was so anxious to fix the problems), and I guess I caused even more problems. I tested the water again, and the results remain the same. The only difference now is that the temperature has gone up to 82.
I am still worried about the fraying fins. Looks like it is getting worse. Could it be some kind of disease?

Please, I need advice. I promise I wont do anything else before checking my email first

Thanks again,
Leonora.

 

[Allivymar]

First and foremost do a water change; my guess is you may have some level of ammonia in the tank, which can cause fraying of the fins (its stresses the fish and reduces thier immune system). I'd try a 20-30% change every day for the next few days. Water changes are always a good thing; sometimes fresh clean treated temp matched water is enough to kick the immune systems into high gear. Next time you're in a lfs grab an ammonia test; its important to have.

If the fins are not too terribly damaged, I'd suggest trying a product called Melafix; its great for mild fin rot. If the fins are really bad, you'll need to try something stronger; I'd suggest Kanacyn. Thing is, stronger meds will muck up the nitrogen cycle and can cause more ammonia problems.

Lastly, chemicals won't cause the temps to rise; I'm guessing there may be something wrong with your heater. Do know higher temps are fine for tropical fish, but not good for goldfish (74-78F for regular goldies, 76-80F for fancies is suggested).

 

[Leonora]

Hello everyone,

I did a 35%water change yesterday and added Melafix. Today I will test the water again. Hopefully the results will be better and the fins will heal with the medication.

Thanks all of you for your help.
I will post with the test results.

Leonora.