New Tank Questions - Severums

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bamaorator

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 22, 2008
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Alabama
Greetings everyone! I'm a relatively new fish keeper. I had an oscar years ago and did everything wrong so this time I'm trying to get things right. I have a 120gal that I just started up on Sunday night (two nights ago). On Monday (yesterday) I borrowed some established media from a friend to get things going. He also gave me four 1 inch severums to help feed the bacteria. I have a fluval FX5 for filtration. I don't plan to keep all four. To be honest I'm not quite sure what I want to do. I had planned to keep only one oscar, but I've been reading up on the severums and they seem pretty cool too. I'll either keep just one and add an oscar later, or keep two severums if they pair up. Anyway, I tested my water today and got the following results:

Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
Ph 6.4
temp 79.7

My Ph out of the tap was 7.6 when I filled the tank Sunday night and it was the same yesterday afternoon. I'm a little shocked at the drop today seeing as how all I added was the fish and the used media. I'm concerned about water changes causing Ph shock. I guess I'm really looking for advice and maybe to understand what makes the Ph drop like that. When I had my other tank years ago I lived in a different area and we had very hard water so I dealt with high ph. Does this drop indicate soft water? Should I try to change it? I know 7.6 is a little high for severums but I was under the impression that stability was better. Any advice will be appreciated.
 
bamorator said:
My Ph out of the tap was 7.6 when I filled the tank Sunday night and it was the same yesterday afternoon. I'm a little shocked at the drop today seeing as how all I added was the fish and the used media. I'm concerned about water changes causing Ph shock. I guess I'm really looking for advice and maybe to understand what makes the Ph drop like that.
Click to expand...

I had the same thing happen. The way it was explained to me was that the tap water had no "buffer." I'm not entirely sure what that is scientifically speaking, but it means that the longer your water sits and is allowed evaporate, the Ph will drop. Our tap water comes out at 7.4-7.6, and without buffer, drops reall quick like yours did. To get around this, the guy at my "best" LFS recommended putting a few rocks in the tank. I think buffer may be mineral content (harder water leaves more mineral deposits....). Now my tanks do fine. You can buy "buffer" from pond and aquarium stores, but it's wayyyyyy cheaper and easier to use rocks.
 
Yep, the buffering explanation clinches it by a nose. :)

On a slightly less science note, sevs should be fine in anywhere between 5-8. They really just need the softer water for egg development as far as im concerned.

Best of luck.

Lets see some pics, i do love the sevs :)
Craggy
 
Before anyone starts going on about buffers and what not you should go and get a KH and GH test kit and post here with your results .
If your water is hard then it's a problem elsewere and you don't want to just mask a problem by buying treatments. If the water is real soft (which is no buffer) then you will want to buy RO additives for the water to bring it up to a good level and either way you dont want to be putting unnecessary chemicals in the tank...

Which i'm sure you'll have alot more people telling you when this thread get read more..
 
Great! I stopped by the store this morning on my way to work and bought a test kit for Kh and Gh so I'll post the results this afternoon when I get home.

Can't take pics yet as I seem to have lost the memory card for my camera. Will do it as soon as I find it.
 
Ok...I have some new test results:

Temp 79.7
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
Kh (alkalinity?) 80
Gh (hardness?) 120
Ph 7.6 (back up from yesterday)

The only pet store in town just had the Mardel test strips. I use the dropper kit for everything else because I know the test strips can be hard to read. It was also a little confusing because they don't refer to the tests as Kh or Gh...they call them alkalinity/buffering capacity and total hardness. Anyway, I think this should provide more information. Also, as you can see, the ph is back up to 7.6 today. I'm not sure what to make of that. All four fish are still alive and actually greeted me this afternoon when I came in instead of hiding like they've been doing. So...what do you make of all this? And thanks to everyone!
 
Craig - As requested here is a pic...I'm new to photography too so please excuse the quality.

IMG_2796.jpg
 
Good luck with your pH problem!

As for the Sevs, definitely keep them. There's so much more in the way of variety that you can do with a severum based tank as with an oscar. They're such friendly and beautiful fish. :)
 
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