Also, as already asked, are you enriching the RO water with any minerals? RO water does not have any buffering capacity, meaning the tank water stats are wildly swinging, not just after water change....Test for KH and pH. The KH is probably undetectable and your pH has probably crashed down too low...hence the fish deaths. What species do you keep?
Fish are dieing after water changes
- Thread starter timmycat
- Start date
Since you have an RO unit, it is most likely removing the chlorine.
How often do you do a water change of 25%?
The problem when using RO is that it sometimes removes buffers, and the buffers help to control fish urine.
If to start with, you have low buffered water in the tank, pH can drop drastically in only a week or less, e.g. from @7 to 5 or lower turning your water to fish urine soup.
Adding unbuffered RO can then have a pH yoyo effect bringing pH up with a water change momentarily, but dropping quickly without a decent buffering capacity.
Many fish can take pH fluctuations, but it depends on how much, and if the fish urine is sufficiently diluted by the water change.
How big is the tank? How heavily is it stocked?
Why are you using RO?
How often do you do a water change of 25%?
The problem when using RO is that it sometimes removes buffers, and the buffers help to control fish urine.
If to start with, you have low buffered water in the tank, pH can drop drastically in only a week or less, e.g. from @7 to 5 or lower turning your water to fish urine soup.
Adding unbuffered RO can then have a pH yoyo effect bringing pH up with a water change momentarily, but dropping quickly without a decent buffering capacity.
Many fish can take pH fluctuations, but it depends on how much, and if the fish urine is sufficiently diluted by the water change.
How big is the tank? How heavily is it stocked?
Why are you using RO?
I know this is a weird question but what is RO
I have never heard of this abbreviation so what is it?
I have never heard of this abbreviation so what is it?
Reverse osmosis filter. It takes chlorine, (and mostly everything else) out of the water. The result is very clean water that is also minerally deficient for most fish. So you generally want to mix a little bit of tap water in with the RO, or dose minerals/buffer.
About the test kit, you should get a liquid test kit as David suggests. Ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite, as well as pH, and kH/gH (hardness) are the most commonly tested levels.
If you don't know about the nitrogen cycle, you should do some reading on it. It will explain what you want as far as ammonia, nitrite, nitrate. Which is universal for all fish. Preferred pH and hardness vary depending on fish species.
About the test kit, you should get a liquid test kit as David suggests. Ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite, as well as pH, and kH/gH (hardness) are the most commonly tested levels.
If you don't know about the nitrogen cycle, you should do some reading on it. It will explain what you want as far as ammonia, nitrite, nitrate. Which is universal for all fish. Preferred pH and hardness vary depending on fish species.
Oh I have heard of that.
Friend spent quite some money on that for his tank ended up hating it and selling it
Friend spent quite some money on that for his tank ended up hating it and selling it
My tanks are 220 125 210 and 2 40longs. I started using ro because I thought it help my problem
