need some help!

W

wildgator25

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Jun 6, 2004
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I got over the fishless cycle and finally got my fish Wednesday. I got 6 Ghost Shrimp, 6 Sunburst Platys, 4 Med Schwartz Cory Cats, 2 Male Red Fire Gouramies 6Danios, 2 Black Mystery Snails, and 2 Ramshorn snails. I also got a Java Fern and a Water Sprite. I did the 90% water change Tuesday, and everything was fine when the fish arrived and where acclimated Wednesday. However, when I checked the water yesterday and today, I've noticed that the pH has dropped from 7.0 to around 6.4-6.5 the past 2 days. nitrates was 40 ppm. First off, why would the pH drop to begin with? Also, will it hurt the fish, and what can I do besides a water change to bring it up? When I was doing the fishless cycle I added 1 tbsp full of baking soda to the water, and it brought the pH up, as well as helped in the kH department.
so i went ahead today and did a 25% water change and in the process found a dead ghost shrimp under some decoration. would the dead shrimp account for the low ph? i am missing another one as well. do the fish i have snack on them or tend to hurt them? i like the cute little things, they are fun to watch and dont want to lose any more. also i have my temp at 81 degees, is that too warm? thanks!
 
I would think that the trouble would have come from your water change. If you have adjusted the pH before hand, and then did a water change, it would have caused it to drop if your tap waters pH is lower. If not I'm not sure what to tell you from the information you've given. Also may I ask why you were doing such a large water change? a 90% change seems a little overboard and unnessesary. The pH isn't a terribly bad range for a community of fish that ar acclimatized, but if possible I would raise it. If that change has cocurred over a two day period, they are not going through a very stressful change. A .5 change over one day will be okay for your fish. So if this change happend over the full two days they will be just fine. I would try and get those nitates down because they are sitting right on the fence of a deadly level. I would try a smaller water change of about 25%. I would say that your shrimp died because of the change, but it could have very well been the fish that ate them too, but this seems unlikely. Most fish will leave them to do their business. 81 might be slightly high for some fish, but mid to high 70's is good for most tropicals.
 
A large water change at the end of fishless cycling is standard to get rid of the extremely high nitrate present - it is not excessive at all, and exactly follows the best instructions available for fishless cycling. Why do folks persist in offering incorrect advice on topics they know nothing about? vato, you are not being helpful, you are being damaging. How can you say in the same advice paragraph that the nitrate is dangerously high and still say not to do large water changes? Hello? Did you even notice that the large change was done before the fish were in?

A temp of 81F is a tad higher than many folks run, but should be fine for tropicals.

The pH is likely crashing due to low KH - test your KH and report back on the results and several of us can offer suggestions.
 
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