If your KH is 19º then your pH should be at least 8.5 not 7.4. It may come directly from the well at pH 7.4 with ~20 ppm CO2 but it should then gradually rise as the CO2 vents with the atmosphere over the next 24 hours.
Sick GT, getting worse
- Thread starter Jasonnstephjung
- Start date
I realize I forgot to mention that I have added a bit of salt to his tank. There isn't much in there, but I wanted to help with this breathing and I am afraid of taking him out in his weakened state.
I will try to get some video here shortly, hopefully that helps.
The pH of the water out of the well was originally 8.3-8.4 a few years ago, after the water softener was added (sigh) it comes out as 7.4 out of the tap. If it is heavily aerated, it returns to 8.3, which is what is going on out in our koi pond.
I'm really glad you don't think this is columnaris. When the koi come in for winter, their holding tank gets sets up fairly close to the GT tank and I was worried about unintentional cross-contamination although I know the situation isn't solved yet.
I will try to get some video here shortly, hopefully that helps.
The pH of the water out of the well was originally 8.3-8.4 a few years ago, after the water softener was added (sigh) it comes out as 7.4 out of the tap. If it is heavily aerated, it returns to 8.3, which is what is going on out in our koi pond.
I'm really glad you don't think this is columnaris. When the koi come in for winter, their holding tank gets sets up fairly close to the GT tank and I was worried about unintentional cross-contamination although I know the situation isn't solved yet.
Also just wanted to say thank you for all the help with "Clovis." I really like him and I'm hoping he can pull through.
I would use the well water before it gets into the water softener. The calcium and magnesium is required to be a certain amount for fish. Each species will vary. It really doesn't make the water soft for fish by lowering the TDS value. All it does is replace the calcium and magnesium with either sodium or potassium.
I've known folks who have use a salt based water softener, and many of their cichlids went downhill in terms of health within a year. Once they quit using the water out of the water softener for water changes, they didn't get the same health issues with their cichlids.
Unfortunately Clovis died early this morning. I got to him almost immediately and tried to resuscitate him, but it didn't work. Really sucks, he had a great friendly personality. Thank you to everyone here who tried to help me save him.
