Major pH problem...Help!

[Lou Lou]

Lately my pH has been extremely high and fish have been dying one by one. First a pair of rams, and now serveral of my barbs. So far my bp and electric blue dempsey seem to be ok, as well as the pleco and silver dollars. I've been doing water changes with RO water for the last month and the pH is still not changing. The LFS suggested bringing in a sample of my substrate to see if it's the culprit.

I used to have sand when I had an FH. I changed to rock 6 months ago when I switched to a community tank. The rock is different than anything I've seen before. I got it at Petsmart. It has shiny flakes in it, and sometimes i see it in the fish poop. I don't know what kind of rock it is.

Has anyone experienced this problem? Any guesses as to what the substrate is?

Hope to get to the bottom of it soon!

 

[BPags52]

I'm not so sure adding chemicals is the best solution...seems like it would only cause it to fluctuate, and if the problem hasn't been fixed, it'll just go back up.

Not sure about the substrate, but I'd imagine it can't be good that you see bits of it in the fish poo....
Take a sample to the LFS like they suggested.

Maybe posting pics of the substrate/rocks you described could help people identify it.

 

[Werbs]

Test your kH. If your kH is not high enough then you dont have any buffer to absorb the things that can easily fluctuate your pH. And since your using RO water then i'd bet money that your kH is REALLY low!! you can add baking soda to raise your kH, but it will also raise your pH but the pH of your RO water is probably around 5.5-6.0 so im sure that will still be fine. I would just continue doing water changes, but with your tap water. Tap water generally has a pretty high kH to maintain a stable pH.

 

[Werbs]

and yes, it still could be your substrate, but ive never seen a substrate buffer higher then like a 8.8. For africans that would be great, but not really for SA. But judging by your avatar... africans arent your thing, but i dont know.

I think that your pH may just be an underlying detail of the real problem your fish are dying too. Cause fish (especially most of your SA) are pretty hardy and can adapt to different levels of alkaline and acidity fairly well. but yes! definatly check as many of the water parameters as you can!

 

[Werbs]

Good lookin FH in your avatar BTW.