Ph Problem!! Fin Rot????

[dakrypat]

I have a relatively new (3 months) tank. But keep getting really high ph readings.

I measured my water and it was at the top reading of my kit 7.4 or thereabouts. So I was wondering what can I do besides putting ph downer in everytime i do a water change???



Also I have just introduced 4 new fish and after two days they all have damaged fins does fin rot happen this fast? What does it look like? Or could it just be fighting, I have seen some of the other pecking at the new ones. Is there anything I can do? Will my fish die because of this?

 

[ChilDawg]

What sort of fish? If they are aggressive, I can tell you from whence the fin damage came. If not necessarily considered aggressive, fin damage may have come from the same means anyway, but we need more info on fish species in order to give a more accurate answer.

 

[ChilDawg]

Oh, by the way, 7.4 isn't really that high. Unless you are keeping fish which truly love acidic conditions, you should be okay with 7.4 pH. Either that, or choose fish to match the pH of your water.

 

[Faramir]

Ironically, pH down does not work well in tanks with high pH, because such tanks usually have a high KH as well.

Get a wide or high range test kit and find out what the pH really is. Post the fish you have, and we can decide whether you need to lower the pH. Whatever else, chuck the pH down in the bin. Waste of time.

 

[dakrypat]

Wkat is KH??

I am not 100% sure which fish I have but I have been looking at some sites and I think I have the following:

One Silver Shark
One Orange platy
Two Dalmation Molly's
Two Drawf Guarami's (A slight colouring difference between them does this mean that they are a pair?)
Two Cichlids they are bright yellow and have a yellow dot on their anal fin one developed greyish/black vertical lines after we brought it home.
Two other silver fish that I am not sure what they are, I have attached a picture of one of these.
Four bottom feeders, two are silverish and the other two were a pinkish /albino type colour until we brought them home and then one of them turned a grey/silver colour. They are long fish.

I hope this actually means something to someone because I really don't know what I am talking about.

 

[Faramir]

KH is a measure of the buffering capacity of your water. In aquatic systems it is primarily carbonate and bicarbonate.

[layman's version]

It stops the pH from dropping, essentially. The more you have, the higher your pH will be, all else being equal

[/layman's version]

[chemist's version]

H+ (which makes a solution acidic) reacts with carbonate to form carbonic acid:

2H+ + CO3-- <--> H2CO3

Similarly, with bicarbonate:

H+ + HCO3- <--> H2CO3

This then splits to form CO2, which dissipates, and water:

H2CO3 <--> CO2 + H20

Thus the pH goes back up as the acid is neutralised.

These reactions are reversable, so the presence of carbonate pushes both of them to the right, neutralising the acid. As the KH drops (because it is lost in the neutralisation process), the equilibrium moves to the left and the pH will drop.

[/chemist's version]

And that's why your pH down stuff has to be re-added all the time.

 

[Gourami_Boy]

Dwarf Gouramis

Sounds like you have a pair of the same sex if the colour difference is only slight. Not a good idea to have same sex pairs of Gouramis, would advise you get females for males,..vice versa.
included pics of my male & female Dwarf Gouramis.