Rocks making fish flash. Should I use ph down?

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Lauren Deadly

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 6, 2013
138
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Orange County
So after I did my monthly removal of decorations I noticed some of my fish itching. I'm accustom to fish diseases and have a whole artillery of medications, though ironically I don't believe in heavily medicating. I don't believe this is a disease issue though. Zero symptoms other than itching, everyone is active, and healthy appetites. I think this MAY be due to some rocks I added with the last cleaning.

My question is; after I remove the rocks will the ph balance itself out or should I intervene and add a PH down? I have yet to even open the package of ph down since I haven't had any need for it so I have no clue if there is anything special I need to do for it.


PH: 7.5-7.7 (The colors were in between in the tests lol) this is high for us. usually 7.0-7.2
Nitrate: below 20ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
hardness: 120-250. From cali so our water is always hard
Alkalinity: 80
Need to test the ammonia still but I doubt it's bad only because we keep things thoroughly clean and if anything I've underfed this week.

we do weekly water changes 25%-40% and a monthly removal of decorations so we can vacuum the hard to reach places. Clean the canister tubes once a month and wipe the lids every other week.
 
don't use ph down. just use water changes to get the ph back to your normal.
that's all.
 
Have you tested your tap water incase something may have changed from the water companies?


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If you need to lower PH (and I agree with the posters above--you probably don't) use something natural like peat pellets rather than a chemical additive.

Also, fish flashing is frequently the first sign of ich, which would occur before there would be visible symptoms on the fish.
 
I find (and have normally) pH in the 7.5-7.8 range.
This is a comfortable and normal pH for most aquarium fish.
I would only be concerned if I were trying to breed discus, rams, or was trying to keep wild caught Uaru fernandezyepzi.
Fat Homer brings up a good point, with seasonal change, tap water can rise or fall with the incoming water to the water supplier, and altering pH can be problematic, and costly for them. And for that matter for you.
Doing water changes is a better method of stabilizing water parameters.
By removing rocks you may have exposed rock surfaces that, when replaced, added a bit of extra buffering capacity to your tank, helping to reduce acids produced by fish urine and other metabolic processes (I would consider that, a good thing in my tanks).
Also, my tap water has a total hardness of 250ppm, and I don't consider that hard, but rather medium hardness.
Alkalinity of 80, is also much like mine.
 
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