neutral reg is good for most fish, unless they are special species that like a certian ph. range. Some african fish need a ph in the 8-9 range and there are certian amazon fish that like their water in the 5-6ish range. For most however a steady and consistant 7.0 is just fine and prefer the stability. Like mentioned before a sudden .5 drop in Ph will seriously effect almost any fish and will definately kill some. Same could be said about any water paramiter, includeing temp.
HELP!!!! ASAP!!!!! FISH ARE DYING!!!!!
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Nitrates should ideally be kept below 20. Mine are rarely over 15ppm. Doing 50% weekly water changes will keep them that low as would having plants in the tank. Some of the easiest ways to keep plants in the tank, requiring no special lights, substrates or fertilizers is to just put duck weed or water sprite on the surface. Another trick I have in 2 of my tanks it to allow a spider off of a spider plant to grow sticking out of your filter. When the spider gets to be too big I either plant it or toss it and get a new one.
All that is fine and good, but acute nitrate toxicity doesn't cause the symptoms being described. What is your water temp? Loaches are riverine critters and as such require high DO in their water. Add an airstone or power head at the surface, and start doing a lot more water changes to get your nitrates down. If your temperature recently elevated, you would see these symptoms associated with the resultant lowered DO.
As for your pH, I fully believe that all pH regulation chemicals are a sales gimmick that do far more harm than good. A stable pH is far more valuable to you than a pH of any particular value. Allowing, or forcing, your pH to fluctuate will case a scary amount of physiologic stress. Those chemicals all force the pH to change, and when you do a water change with out adding them again the pH changes again. They also have a tendancy to render the pH unstable and prone to massive crashes if the KH isn't very high. Ohh and they don't work if the KH is high... so its a catch 22.
What is your KH? Rather than mess with your ph, whitch is so important to keep stable, let make sure your KH is high enough. KH measures the buffering capacity of your water, a low KH means your pH will fluctuate, a high KH means your pH will be stable. Its easy to raise the KH and it doesn't hurt anything in the tank to do it.
This isn't right, and if its true I hope you don't have any children drinking that water. EPA regulations are set at 10ppm, if you are on town water, either your test is no good, or you need to inquire with your water company. If you are on a welll, switch to bottled water. http://www.epa.gov/ogwdw000/contaminants/dw_contamfs/nitrates.htmltcarswell;3462173; said:My water leaves the tap at 20-40 PPM (nitrate)I don't see how this would be a huge issue.
All that is fine and good, but acute nitrate toxicity doesn't cause the symptoms being described. What is your water temp? Loaches are riverine critters and as such require high DO in their water. Add an airstone or power head at the surface, and start doing a lot more water changes to get your nitrates down. If your temperature recently elevated, you would see these symptoms associated with the resultant lowered DO.
As for your pH, I fully believe that all pH regulation chemicals are a sales gimmick that do far more harm than good. A stable pH is far more valuable to you than a pH of any particular value. Allowing, or forcing, your pH to fluctuate will case a scary amount of physiologic stress. Those chemicals all force the pH to change, and when you do a water change with out adding them again the pH changes again. They also have a tendancy to render the pH unstable and prone to massive crashes if the KH isn't very high. Ohh and they don't work if the KH is high... so its a catch 22.
What is your KH? Rather than mess with your ph, whitch is so important to keep stable, let make sure your KH is high enough. KH measures the buffering capacity of your water, a low KH means your pH will fluctuate, a high KH means your pH will be stable. Its easy to raise the KH and it doesn't hurt anything in the tank to do it.
kdrun76;3462982; said:As for your pH, I fully believe that all pH regulation chemicals are a sales gimmick that do far more harm than good. A stable pH is far more valuable to you than a pH of any particular value. Allowing, or forcing, your pH to fluctuate will case a scary amount of physiologic stress. Those chemicals all force the pH to change, and when you do a water change with out adding them again the pH changes again. They also have a tendancy to render the pH unstable and prone to massive crashes if the KH isn't very high. Ohh and they don't work if the KH is high... so its a catch 22.
What is your KH? Rather than mess with your ph, whitch is so important to keep stable, let make sure your KH is high enough. KH measures the buffering capacity of your water, a low KH means your pH will fluctuate, a high KH means your pH will be stable. Its easy to raise the KH and it doesn't hurt anything in the tank to do it.
I partially agree with this, I wont say its a gimmick, because they do work. If you always use them when you mix up your water. If your fish can be fine in your water then I wouldnt use the chemicals. But somtimes you have to use them, I keep a lot of Amazon tanks, and my well water is good water but it has to be treated b/c it comes out of the ground at 8.8-9.0 ph and harder than liquid cement...and I dont care how consistant it is, discus/rams/angels (most amazon/blackwater) fish will not be happy in a stable 9.0 ph. So you gotta treat it. I have an RO/DI unit now but the acid buffer worked well while I needed it. I imagine the same would be said on the other extreem, Im willing to bet there are a number of african's that just wouldnt deal with a 5.4ph no matter how consistant.
here's a dumb Q? so forgive me if this was obvious. do you condition the water when doing a w/c? gasping will result if not conditioned. just in case...
happened to me. I did a 50% w/c & forgot to add PRIME. 2 angels & my baby bala croaked or choked to death, but my 3 largest angel/1 baby koi were alive but gasping at the surface. I over-dosed with Prime & within 10-15min they were breathing fine, back to normal. T.G.!!
2 plecos/1 lg albino cory all survived also but were'nt gasping.
this was one bad mistake...
happened to me. I did a 50% w/c & forgot to add PRIME. 2 angels & my baby bala croaked or choked to death, but my 3 largest angel/1 baby koi were alive but gasping at the surface. I over-dosed with Prime & within 10-15min they were breathing fine, back to normal. T.G.!!
2 plecos/1 lg albino cory all survived also but were'nt gasping.
this was one bad mistake...
Err;3467566; said:I partially agree with this, I wont say its a gimmick, because they do work. If you always use them when you mix up your water. If your fish can be fine in your water then I wouldnt use the chemicals. But somtimes you have to use them, I keep a lot of Amazon tanks, and my well water is good water but it has to be treated b/c it comes out of the ground at 8.8-9.0 ph and harder than liquid cement...and I dont care how consistant it is, discus/rams/angels (most amazon/blackwater) fish will not be happy in a stable 9.0 ph. So you gotta treat it. I have an RO/DI unit now but the acid buffer worked well while I needed it. I imagine the same would be said on the other extreem, Im willing to bet there are a number of african's that just wouldnt deal with a 5.4ph no matter how consistant.
You are absolutely correct! There are a few fish that genuinely require a rather specific pH range. Some that are content in simply a stable range but require a specific range for breeding and some that simply require a stable pH. The vast majority of aquarium fish fall into that last category, I know angels are in the second category. For this tank.... a stable pH is the important part. You also bring up a good point about the RO units. Using an RO unit with the pH adjusters is FAR safer than using the pH adjusters with straight tap water. (Still not applicable to this tank though.)
I am still waiting to hear from the OP, how are the fish?
this happened to me before..., i killed a couple of my catfish due to 50% or more water changed....and the rest of the fish got lethargic but recovered afterwards with no other water changes needed... some fish are sensitive to fast water chemistry change and may go into shock... you might have change too much water and replace the water u took out pretty fast.. the fish did not have time to adapt to a quick pH and temperature changes... THAT PROBABLY KILLED YOUR FISH (then went into shock).. i know i learned my lesson...
