confused

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Carlene

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 21, 2008
51
0
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Seattle Wa.
:confused: I am confused and out of my mind about conflicting information I see on the internet or not being able to find answers I seek. For instance ph ranges for my peacock gudgeons some say 6.0-8 others 6.5-7.8,what is the right answer?Also no one seems to know how long it takes for them to get to thier full size.
As far as raising the ph level I get answers(crushed coral,baking soda,buffers,water changes for a week,or leave it alone I'm messing around with it too much). Which is the best way? so that it won't fluctuate up and down and won't harm my fish? I had a drop from a steady 6.6 for the last 5 months to a 6.2 and maybe less since I put in a piece of bogwood I recently purchased. This happened in the course of a couple days and now my whole ph level is messed up. I've taken everything out that could possibly be the problem, left my plastics, couple of plants,1 decore and did alot of small water changes along with cleaning the filter and gravel cleaning,but it does not seem to be helping much. I am becoming very stressed out and frustrated.:irked: Everything I worked so hard on to establish my tank these past 5 months has gone to pieces in just a couple of days. I truly had a really nice ecosystem going and had just purchased the last 2 fish to put in my tank, I am bummed.:cry:Now,because I have done alot of the small water changes I am wondering if the stress coat that is in the tank now,coating everything is going to kill my fish,will it?
I have a 29 gal.tank,5 zebra danios,a male+2 female gouramis, and my 2 peacock gudgeons. My bolivian rams are in quarenteen right now. I am terribly worried about this whole situation and am afraid I will not be able to get it stablized to where it was before. Sorry to be venting out like this on my 2nd day of joining,but I am a worried fish parent.:(
 
The best way to buffer against pH changes is a constant water change schedule. TO be honest, if your water is properly filtered and changed on a regular basis, you should not worry about pH.
 
Before all of this happened I always changed out 4 gal of water every other day and graveled portions once or twice a week. Once I found out I was suppose to rinse out my filters I started doing that as well along with rotating one out and putting a new one in every 3 weeks. The water is very clear and I do not have any algea growing anywhere. Before I always left some that grew on my decore and always made sure my tank glass was cleaned once a week.
 
You don't have to rinse your filters that often, and when you do, use declorinated or tank water. Do not change them every 3 weeks, thats a waste. You may be overfeeding if you need to change them that often.
 
I always make sure I use the tank water to rinse my filters.but not each time I change the water maybe just once a week. I have 2 carbon filters in 1 is 1 week older than the other. The package says to change them out every 3 to 4 weeks so I take the oldest one out and rotate. So can I actually keep them longer? I also feed my fish once a day in the morning and when I am going to do a water change I make sure they are fed first.
 
Carbon is basically pointless, its just wasting your money lol. Save it for when you spill something accidentally in your tank.
 
Carlene Hartshorn;1816872; said:
So should I be using something different? Suggestions? Why is it a waste?
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Idk, but I don't like carbon on my tanks. I've noticed that, with carbon, I have more cases of HITH than I do without carbon. Also, they only say to replace filter pads that often so that they'll make money, lol. Trust me, filter pads last a lot longer than 3 weeks. I generally don't change mine until the cotton part starts falling apart. That usually takes quite a while depending on how rough I am when I clean them. You're fine with those filter pads, or you can just use regular scrub pads to replace them in the filter. Either way works fine.
 
Crushed coral and crushed limestone will both rasie your PH up if that's what you want.
So will baking soda, but mix it first with water in a bowl, then pour it into the tank.

Drift wood, alot of plants, and peat moss will lower your PH.
 
I agree that carbon doesn't need to be changed that often, and certainly I would keep the filters longer. Establishing a strong biological filtration is important, and your filter usually houses the majority of the colony. Its just getting time to take hold when you replace it.

Are you reading any ammonia levels?

pH. You'll find different FW requirements for your fish, but usually they just vary in tolerance. 6.0 - 8.0 is like saying, "anything will work". you don't need to worry as much about the pH MEASUREMENT, as much as it's STABILITY. If it gets outside the above range that's bad, but pretty difficult to do. If you want to raise it I recommend adding some limestone rock as decor.
 
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