Is my water the cause for all my problems?

[DB junkie]

The 50% wcs stopped after the drip was installed. Prior to having the drip installed I was doing 40-50% changes daily. I haven't been doing any WCs since the drips been installed.

Out of cold tap is 8.4 according to strips that I picked up today.

I picked up an additional carbon filter to add to the drip today for piece of mind.

Ill be contacting the water dept tomorrow to see what they have to say about the 1.0 minute discrepency. Lol. Its kinda ironic that the water treatment plant is 1/2 block away.

So what kinda impact on PH would a water softener have when dealing with these kinda water parameters?

 

[skynoch]

Are you using a water softener now?

 

[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.

"shouldn't"

 

[FishDog]

I read you first post wrong, I thought you were adding 7.5 pH water and it was climbing to 8.5 pH in the pond. What was your pH in the past? Having a pH of 8.5 is higher than I would like to see but I have read people keeping rays at the pH before. Not sure how that will affect long term health on the rays. A water softener will lower your pH since it removes the minerals from the water that drive the pH up. I don't see the water heater having an affect on the pH. If you went with a softener maybe you could run a 50/50 mix to achieve a lower pH. With the pH asside, sounds like you might have some bullying going on. If you haven't already, separate that male and see if things go back to normal.

 

[jwong1024]

if water was your issue, why not age the water in a sump before it enters drip system?

have you looked at quality of food or parasites??

 

[DB junkie]

Are you using a water softener now?

No. No softener right now. Not sure if its an option now either. I didn't realize they were so expensive. Kinda out of reach for the unemployed lol.

 

[DB junkie]

What was your pH in the past? Having a pH of 8.5 is higher than I would like to see but I have read people keeping rays at the pH before. Not sure how that will affect long term health on the rays. A water softener will lower your pH since it removes the minerals from the water that drive the pH up. I don't see the water heater having an affect on the pH. If you went with a softener maybe you could run a 50/50 mix to achieve a lower pH. With the pH asside, sounds like you might have some bullying going on. If you haven't already, separate that male and see if things go back to normal.

Ph has always been high. The test kit I have is way old, usually tested 8.2.

Just trying to eliminate possibilities. Figured water would be a good start.

I really don't think water is the problem as nothings changed but if its questionable long term then it would be wise of me to try to figure out a way to safetly, consistantly, and reliably bring it down. The problem is I really have no room for mixing/aging vats.

 

[csx4236]

PH is not your problem, I know many breeders/keepers with same high PH and there rays are fine. From time you took water out of your tank and brought it to the store for testing how long did that take? Were you sure bottle was completely clean for transport? If it took more few hours I have seen PH drop in test bottle. I would say sounds like having aggression problems from male beating of bullying the other ray. PH will not be effected by hot water.

 

[DavidW]

extra-high pH = constant low grade stress.
Constant aggression , no escape = constant stress.
a double whammy.

A good r/o is preferable to a water softener system.
mixed 50-50 with your regular tap water should fix most of the water hardness and pH issue.
Different peoples' water supplies are under different system pressures ( and temperatures) , which means different amounts of various dissolved gasses, especially CO2, which causes pH bounces as it and CL2 naturally gasses off once the water is out of the main and the pressure is off. Have I ever mentioned ageing water before use?

sorry for your loss. Ray school is expensive both materially and emotionally

 

[skynoch]

Don't go with the water softener. If I can remember right for every ion it takes out it replaces it with 2 salt ions. Could be too much salt in your system constantly. Like dw said you could go with a r/o system and drip it along with your regular drip.
I remember you mentioning that your nitrates were really high. I found with my xingus if I let the nitrates get high that in a couple weeks they tend to go on a hunger strike and will stay that way for a week at least even after they are brought down. The first time it happened I didn't put the two together since they stopped eating after I corrected my problem. Now it happened again since I've been missing a few water changes. I also noticed my male breathing out of one lung and my female with some breathing problems during this time. The breathing problems could have been something else since I didn't notice this the first time.
I'm not sure that nitrate poisoning has a delayed effect or not, maybe someone else has noticed something similar. Alot of people say throw out your test kits but they are handy to use when relating problems that may have been caused by an event that occured a couple weeks before a ray became sick. As I've been told by other raykeepers keep a journal.