help wife is going to kill me

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mike dunagan

mike dunagan

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 11, 2006
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Pendleton, IN
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okay, I have had trouble keeping any angels alive in my angel tank. I get one and it dies a day or two later. My water is RO and perfect. I have them with rainbows and a black ghost knife. I had a discus but he died after two weeks strangely as well. I have lost three angels. I am puzzled...
 
How long has it been set up, and what size?
What are the water parameters/temp?
Where are you getting the angels and discus?
 
plesase provide more info. water parameters tank info such as size, filter type, temp, the more info the better chance for help.

Are running straight R/O water or do you mix with tap or add sometype of trace elements?
 
striaght RO get the fish from either the Reef or Angels and More in Muncie. all levels on my last test were in the safe range. It has been up for about 5 months. I run back filter with carbon filters. I do a water change every other week about 25 percent. It is a 55 gallon. The discus was a bit small and a risk so I figured that was why it passed. The tank went three months without out losing a fish. Then one day my angel got a skin fungus. I treated the tank as directed with cooper. I did not lose anything else. Then after two weeks a bought a viel angel. It died over night. I test the water it was fine. After that I add a golden wonder with out a problem. A week after that I added a new angel. It last 5 days then past. During that time I lost another angel that had not grown in the three months I had had it. The others tripled in that time. yesterday before I left town I have one angel left. I have not lost a rainbow fish yet. Just angels.
 
RO water is terrible if you don't condition it first.


I'd say without knowing that you should add natural driftwoods to the tank. As well as invest in Blackwater extract and Ketapang vital. I'd also pick up some grasses or java moss for the tank.


Buffer buffer buffer.
 
AtomixIGN;600447; said:
RO water is terrible if you don't condition it first.


I'd say without knowing that you should add natural driftwoods to the tank. As well as invest in Blackwater extract and Ketapang vital. I'd also pick up some grasses or java moss for the tank.


Buffer buffer buffer.
Click to expand...
very good!! :iagree:
 
Straight r/o water is no good for fishkkeeping you have to reconsitute is to some extent even for softwater low ph fish.

Also what means safe range on the tests. #s please youre dealing with 2 very delicate fish.
 
R/O water will fluctuate in pH very rapidly with the addition of fish waste. I would look into a product called R/O Right. It will make your pH stable. The addition of driftwood will release tanic acids and only bring your pH down, which you don't need at this point r/o water has avery low pH. I would also avoid Black water extract. I would also lose the carbon, this also lowers your pH.

I can not stress enough that stability of pH is much more important than a low pH with discus.

What is the pH of your tap water?
 
I found out the problem. I had a skin fungus that final showed some signs today. I treatedit. My angels were not showing the signs, its hard to find on them. My knife eats them to fast to see. Now that I know I had a discussion with a long time breeder I know out of city. He said the same about Ro that you all have told me. I am going to start moving toward conditioned tap water. I will most likely had some wood too now. Thank you all so much for the help... ps I took a water sampleto my work and my angel guy. All levels were fine, but my Ro water was not conditioned. Ph was 6 all other levels such has nitrate and nitrite were no even measureable. I will keep all posted. Thanks again.
 
Looks like your R/O water is definitely the problem. What I do for my Discus is mix my R/O water (4 gallons) with treated tap water (1 Gallon) this keeps my Ph in the 6.6 to 6.8 range and keeps my GH at 4 (58ppm) and my KH is near zero. I always test water before and after water changes to be sure I don't have large variations.

I also use R/O water for my arowana but the ratio is 3-2 with tap water.

The only time I use straight R/O is to refill my planted tank because the water evaporates but the minerals don't and I only do W/C once a month.
 
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