Is my water the cause for all my problems?

[DB junkie]

2 dead rays in less then 2 weeks.

The first was the mom that just gave birth. Quit eating about 2 weeks prior to giving birth never regained appetite.

Second exhibited labored breathing and loss of appetite. She passsed this morning.

I am completely out of ideas. I installed a drip system on my pond to help with my battle against Nitrates and to attempt to get away from parameter fluctuations due to 50% daily WCs.

Out of desperation I talked our local pool/spa store into doing a full test on my water.

Results are taken from water coming out of the drip via some fancy computer assisted water parameter tester. They said they'd trust this machine over anything the water dept. has to say.

Temp 78
Saturation Idx 1.5
TDS 300
Total chlorine 0
Free chlorine 0
PH 8.5
Total alkalinity 223
Adjusted TA 223
Total Hardness 326
Copper 0
Iron 0

Really worried about the PH. This seems rediculously high to me. Water dept claims 7.4-7.6. Not sure how it's raising 1.0 by the time it leaves my faucet.

Can anyone help a fellow raykeeper from losing his mind?

 

[hbluehunter]

Sorry to hear about your ray loss, yea ph looks high.. Not sure why it's going so high though.

 

[skynoch]

My ph is the same and my tds reading is even higher so I can't see a problem there. I'm sorry I can't think of anything that you wouldn't know allready. The only thing I can think of if your worried about water quality is to run some carbon through your filters for awhile.

 

[FishDog]

Something is going on with your pH. Mine is 7.4 out of the tap and stays at 7.4 in the tank. Could it be too many rays and not enough water volume? The 50% w/c a day could be the culprit if you are adding 50% of 7.5 pH and it drifts to 8.5 pH in 24 hours.

 

[Pharaoh]

How much water were you dripping per hour from the system?

 

[ShadowStryder]

My PH comes out at 8 my alkalinity and hardness are quite a bit higher than what yours are.

But it seems strange that it would be your water when they have been living through Water Changes
in the same water for all this time without casualties.
Unless the Water Dept has added something different recently and just won't admit it.

 

[DB junkie]

Rough gueess on drip system is 200 gallons/day now, I had it going pretty strong for the first half week to kinda flush the pond.

Pond system is just shy of 800 gallons. 8 rays averaging 14 inches. 4800 gph, 80 gallons of scrubbies. 1K gph circulation pump and mucho aeration.

The water I tested was straight out of the drip at 8.5.
I have the drip ran via hot/cold "T". I think I need to test straight cold. Hot water heater possibly have an effect? IF I'm 8.5 straight outta tap I have to have issues between me and the water plant. But if others are housing rays in similar conditions then all this isn't gonna be the cause.

Maybe it's not the water.... Maybe the Ron Jeremy Marble has all the rays hating life. I know the female I just lost got beat up pretty good. Tip of tail got bit pretty bad. She went from the most aggressive eater to not eating overnight. 3 days later I seperated her. 9 days later gone. Just wouldn't eat.

Very very frustrating...........

 

[Pharaoh]

With the drip system flowing that much, you should be noticing a whole lot of fluctuation in your PH. It should stay fairly high all the time.

You might look at your water heater. Maybe it is putting something in the water that you don't know about. This is completely a random shot in the dark, but then again, something to look at.

 

[vamptrev]

did u test the ph out of the cold water tap?

 

[jwong1024]

Sorry for the loss....

With the drip system flowing that much, you should be noticing a whole lot of fluctuation in your PH. It should stay fairly high all the time.

You might look at your water heater. Maybe it is putting something in the water that you don't know about. This is completely a random shot in the dark, but then again, something to look at.

He is testing the water right from the drip system, I don't see anything wrong with your water. PH is high, but as long as it is steady then your are fine. I just don't understand if you are dripping 200gl per day, why need for additional WC???? 1/4 WC a day seems like plenty. Even though there is no sign of cholrine, carbon media would not be a bad idea. Good Luck and keep us posted.