Hi, I'm a newbie with a question. A week ago yesterday we brought home an 18" red-tail catfish (yah, I know the responsibility involved). We're working on plans for an indoor pond for him but in the mean time he's in a 150 gallon tank. A couple of days ago he stopped eating and acting very lathargic. He would sometimes act like he iched. My trusted LFS said to treat for ick although nothing was visable. I treated with QuickCure and yesterday morning did a 50% water change. He acted no different. He (Felix by the way) has a V shaped area behind each gill that looks like the skin is wrinkled. About 3 this morning I treated the tank with Melafix. He's swimming now but still hasn't eaten his fish. He's in a 150 gallon tank with 2 Emporer 400s, a magnum 350 and a Filstar XP3. Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 20 and PH 8.4. Sorry that this is so long, but my husband is really worried about him.
Newbie needing RTC help.
- Thread starter worrelk9
- Start date
The pH is too high for this species. I keep my RTC at a neutral pH. The waters they hail from are at a pH of 6.8 to 7.0 with a gH of 8.0.
I'd suggest another water change, to get rid of the meds you don't need, and adjust the tank for a neutral pH. Good luck.
BTW...Welcome to MFK!!!
I'd suggest another water change, to get rid of the meds you don't need, and adjust the tank for a neutral pH. Good luck.
BTW...Welcome to MFK!!!
You're really not going to want to hear this but here is the solution. I have the exact same problem as you, my tap PH is 8.3 I tried every method of chemically lowering PH on the market. They are basically all just variuos acids you add to your water. The problem is that the tap water has enough buffering capability (called KH, or carbonate hardness) that the PH will shoot right back up. Your water is perfect for saltwater tanks, but no good for freshwater tanks unless you want a tank full of african Cichlids. So the answer for your problem, and the ONLY way to fix this is to run a reverse osmosis+deionizing setup for all of your water. Mine comes out of RODI at PH 6.6 then you reconstitute with Kent R/O right to remineralize and a shot of plain baking soda to add in just enough KH, mine ends up at PH=7.3 and KH=3 which my Tig seems to do fine in. You have to come to the realization that if you want to keep these fish, you either get a setup like this or move to an area that has better water, or setup a marine tank. Hate to be the bearer of bad news but hey you wanted to know. Here's mine, good luck.
I produce the RODI water then heat it, circulate it with a MAG 7 and aerate, then reconstitute it and let it churn for a day inside these 44 gallon Rubbermaid Brute cans. I do this in the basement and then pump it upstairs to my tanks through the floor, that yellow pump sitting next to the can does a pretty good job.
Then I just hook a hose on this here end that is in an upstairs closet and use it to fill the tanks, mark the gallonage on the tanks so you don't run the pump dry. This setup works really well, and is really the only way to go. I tried all the cheaper ways first and wasted alot of time and money before just doing this.
woops, here it is, and that PH down stuff is worthless, with water @ 8.4 your GH/KH are probably 12 or better (mine is 18!!!!) so you can dump all the acid you want in there and it wont work untill it washes your carbonate hardness down to zero, then WHAMO baby, your PH will hit the floor, no good!!!!
I just called the guy we got Felix from and he said that he was just pouting. That he did the same thing when he got him about 6 months ago. He said that I could add some baking soda to the water to bring the PH down but that it would probably go back up again. He said to do another water change to get the meds out and to wait a couple of days. We do have a small RTC (about 5 inches) in another tank that doesn't seem to be having any problems with the PH so hopefully it will be ok. Thanks for your help and if the problems continue I will get down.
Blackwater's recommendation would be your best bet in the long run. You're also going to need a water storage tank to hold water to be used for water changes. These RO units are rated up to 100gpd. But, in reality, their output is much less since their output is temperature dependent. The storage tank should be about half the volume of the indoor pond you intend to build. And, if you can place the storage tank slightly higher than the pond, you can use a float valve to automatically refill the pond after you complete the water removal/gravel wash.
