Did you test your tap water yet? Or test the high range ph to see where it actually measures? Just curious..
Did you test your tap water yet? Or test the high range ph to see where it actually measures? Just curious..
From what I can see in the bag I would expect the rounded river pebbles to be fine and not the culprit. I do however guess that the well water may be the high ph. If so you have a few choices. 1) local fish that may be of similar ph, 2) fish that don’t mind higher ph water, 3) try adjusting the ph (once the tank is cycled and other readings are stable, either chemically or by adding some old wood).
Update: I will NOT be putting the river rocks back I the tank!
I put a few of them in my goldfish tank to give it a more natural look. And immediately my fish started to act extremely lethargic, and Both of them bunched together at the bottom.
They did that for about 15 min until I realized it was the rocks! I took them out and added some aquarium salt. And a couple minutes later they were back to normal again, and swimming around the tank
The only way that any stones would have that rapid an effect on fish would be if they were coated or somehow contaminated with a foreign substance...soap, insecticide, etc; stones themselves just wouldn't affect the water that fast.
And if that were the case...adding salt would be useless. If your fish react immediately to some toxin that is introduced into the water, the proper response would be to do an immediate and large water change, ideally 100%. Depending upon the substance in question, a fresh batch of activated carbon might also remove the toxin from the water, but it would take some time to do so...time that the fish might not be able to wait.
Think about it. If a poisonous substance got into your tank and your fish immediately started to react poorly to it, how on earth would adding salt do them any good?
Local fish would refer to fish that naturally come from the same waterways by where you live.By local fish, do you mean fish from local stores?
River rocks wouldn’t affect your pH - most likely it’s the source water.
My guess is the addition of the stones + water change stresses them out. Fish used to a setup will react negatively to a change.
Local fish would refer to fish that naturally come from the same waterways by where you live.