ph help please

fletch9

Registered Member
Aug 21, 2005
2
0
0
I have a 10 gallon tank. wife just removed everything to cleanit. well she put the fish back in and ta da fish died. took a ph it was 7.2 . I took everything out and cleaned it really well with plain water. but I cannot get the ph below 7.2 even with "perfect ph". I have a loach, 2 fiddler crabs, a snail, 3 neons and now 1 (2 recently died) painted tetra in the tank.can someone please tell me why my fish are dying and I can't get th PH down, Thanks

ps ammonia is 0 ppm too
 
If you removed everything and cleaned it, you probably killed all the good bacteria. It's not necessary to remove everything and clean it. All you have to do is get a gravel vac. You can clean the gravel that way, and also remove water at the same time. Do not clean your decor, as this is where most bacteria is.(and filter)Depending on the load of fish you have you should do between 20-40% water changes/week or 2. When you put your new water in use something to dechlor. and make sure it's about the correct temp. As far as ph, im not sure because i have africans and high ph is good so hopefully someone who knows something about lowering ph can help you out there.
 
pH is ok, lets stick with that don't try to change it or you'll be doing yo yo with it. It also can depend on what kind of fish you have. I have tropical fish so I stick with whatever pH comes out of my tapwater which would come to around 7.4 or so.
As for cleaning, Kayla have said it! :thm: Just do gravel vac which also siphons water. Add in dechlor water to the tank. Clean filter once a month, swish the media in tank water not tap water and you can reuse it as long it can last. Clean decor if they are starting to looking bad. I clean it only when its covered in algae or whatever, best way to deal with it is have an algae eating fish :clap:
 
Yep I do not think that the ph did in your fish, it is the fact that you removed all the good bacteria from your tank and now you are starting all over like it is a new tank. The other question is what was used to clean the tank?
 
Neons are fairly fragile, no doubt the stress alone made them susceptible. Since you didn't mention dechlorination, that's one possibility, another is temperature shock if you didn't match the temperature of the refill water with that already in the tank. The other possibility is that you've had the tank for a number of months and that this is the first cleaning. A 100% water change after a prolonged period, while good from a cleaning out bad chemicals perspective, is very hard on the fish, since it represents a sudden change in water chemistry. A final suspect is that you used the same bucket you use for floor/car/etc. washing and introduced detergents to the tank.

Your pH is fine, an echo in here? ;) Throw out the "perfect pH", your pH is already perfect, i.e. stable.

For maintenance:
-Feed once per day and only very small amounts. Some flake for the tetras, something sinking for the bottom feeders. What kind of loach, btw. Most loaches get too big for a 10g tank.
-Get a new 5g bucket that will be dedicated to the aquarium.
-50% weekly water change using a gravel vac to clean the substrate while changing the water.
-Every 2 weeks or so (or whenever the water flow starts to slow) rince out your filter media in the old tank water in the bucket. Jinxxx mentioned it, but I wanted to specify that you should rinse it in the old water, not in the tank. ;)

Follow these directions and you should have healthy fish and a healthy tank for years to come.
 
happychem said:
Jinxxx mentioned it, but I wanted to specify that you should rinse it in the old water, not in the tank. ;)
LOL, thats what I meant. Don't do that in the tank with fish poor fishy!! Just do it in old tank water. :duh: :D Thanks Chem for pointing that out.
 
Thanks for all your help. I'm sure I'll have a few more questions before I become an expert :huh: . Thanks again.
 
Sure! :) The fish you have left, doing okay?
 
AquariaCentral.com