Water testing is something I do on a fairly frequent basis, and anytime anything looks questionable the first thing i do is check my water perameters. my flounder plec and 2 fire eels have had a rough few weeks. Since I'm at one of my lfs's or another at least 1x a week i do not own my own testing kit but get it tested when i drop in. Usually I do it at the local chain store, it's free and I use to work their so I know the testing kits and have used/trusted them for years... I'm sure some of you see where this is going already. Well since things seems off, I got a water test done. other then my PH being about 7.8 my water perameters tested perfect w/ their lil' dip sticks. I made sure to ask if they where new, of course they where!
Well this morning when I got home from work my eel who had developed a bacterial/fungal patch and the tank was being treated was dead, as well as my pleco!
The remaining eel looked suspiciousely.. Perfectly healthy! So I sucked it up and took a water sample to a different lfs, where i got my eels and most of my more exotic fish from and paid to have it checked. My water is perfect... except my PH is 8.6 + 
not 7.8....
Lesson learned... I get paid friday and will be investing in a seachem FW test kit. As well as continue to have my water tested at not a single store but EVERY store I go to at random times even if mine come back perfect!
So now I am slowly lowering his PH, and kicking myself in the butt. I knew something was wrong. and I shoulda have kept at it more then just say "must just be a random infection."
Well this morning when I got home from work my eel who had developed a bacterial/fungal patch and the tank was being treated was dead, as well as my pleco!
The remaining eel looked suspiciousely.. Perfectly healthy! So I sucked it up and took a water sample to a different lfs, where i got my eels and most of my more exotic fish from and paid to have it checked. My water is perfect... except my PH is 8.6 + not 7.8.... Lesson learned... I get paid friday and will be investing in a seachem FW test kit. As well as continue to have my water tested at not a single store but EVERY store I go to at random times even if mine come back perfect!
So now I am slowly lowering his PH, and kicking myself in the butt. I knew something was wrong. and I shoulda have kept at it more then just say "must just be a random infection."
