I was out of town for a month and a half, and I just came back this last week. Like usual, I left a good friend in charge of my fish tanks, and like me, she has been keeping fish for sometime now. We've always trusted each other on these matters, but this time there was a bit of a foul up. I have an Amazonian tank set up in a 29 gallon with a school of Von Rio Tetras (H. flammeus), a school of Cardinal Tetras (P. axelrodi), a small group of Green Cories (C. aeneus, I believe), a pair of Otos (O. affinis), and a Clown Pleco (to lazy to look up the scientific name).
Anyway, when I came back I found out that my friend had been mixing the water for my water changes wrong. My tap generally tests out as ph 7.6, GH 15, and KH 9. I buy R/O water at the grocery store and mix it at a 1:1 (I change out three gallons, or roughly 10% a week) ratio and I get a pH of 7.0, a GH of 7, and a KH of 4. Usually I make four gallons to keep the ratio. My friend I guess heard me wrong and he mixed the water at a 3:1 ratio in favor of the R/O water. This lowered my water parameters quite a bit, giving me a pH of 6.8, a GH of 4, and a KH that bottomed out below my measuring limit (below 1). Two of my cories did developed a swim bladder problem, and after one of them died, I cleared it up with the "greens" recommendation. The other returned to normal after a few days of only throwing shelled peas into the tank.
Now, I'm not sure about what caused the illness. Was it the sudden change in water parameters that caused the illness, or is the low KH? I ask because I'm afraid that if I switch back to my normal ratio I will cause illness in the tank again. So far only the Cories have exhibited any kind of odd behavior, and the other fish seem to ahve adjusted with relative ease to the new conditions. Even my live plants seem, as of yet, unaffected, and I think they would exhibit some signs of discomfort after six weeks of water changes at the wrong ratio. So, I'm wondering if I should continue with the 3:1 ratio that all of the fish seem to now have adjusted too, or is that KH to low? Can the above mentioned fish prosper at such a low KH?
Thanks,
Araby
Anyway, when I came back I found out that my friend had been mixing the water for my water changes wrong. My tap generally tests out as ph 7.6, GH 15, and KH 9. I buy R/O water at the grocery store and mix it at a 1:1 (I change out three gallons, or roughly 10% a week) ratio and I get a pH of 7.0, a GH of 7, and a KH of 4. Usually I make four gallons to keep the ratio. My friend I guess heard me wrong and he mixed the water at a 3:1 ratio in favor of the R/O water. This lowered my water parameters quite a bit, giving me a pH of 6.8, a GH of 4, and a KH that bottomed out below my measuring limit (below 1). Two of my cories did developed a swim bladder problem, and after one of them died, I cleared it up with the "greens" recommendation. The other returned to normal after a few days of only throwing shelled peas into the tank.
Now, I'm not sure about what caused the illness. Was it the sudden change in water parameters that caused the illness, or is the low KH? I ask because I'm afraid that if I switch back to my normal ratio I will cause illness in the tank again. So far only the Cories have exhibited any kind of odd behavior, and the other fish seem to ahve adjusted with relative ease to the new conditions. Even my live plants seem, as of yet, unaffected, and I think they would exhibit some signs of discomfort after six weeks of water changes at the wrong ratio. So, I'm wondering if I should continue with the 3:1 ratio that all of the fish seem to now have adjusted too, or is that KH to low? Can the above mentioned fish prosper at such a low KH?
Thanks,
Araby
