dianeej

Is there such a thing as pH being too low and harming fish? A couple of week ago, I lost 1/2 my tank to high ammonia levels. I took the fish that were alive and brought them home and put in my home tank. I had to leave my male betta behind, as I already had a male betta at home, and thankfully he is still alive. I had done some major cleaning on my tank. I left the media filter and some of the gravel, but cleaned the rest, and saved some of the tank water. I have been testing the water daily. My ammonia are 0, nitrites are 0 and a small amount of nitrates are visable, however my ph balance barely registers. In the test tube it has just a tinge of yellow, but not near enough to bring it up close to 6. I even tried the test strips and everything looked fine on them also, but the Ph was pure yellow, and that doesn't even show that color on the chart. The fish store recommened buying some cheap fish to make sure my tank was OK before I brought the fish that I am keeping at home back into my office tank, and for the life of me, I can't remember what she gave me. There were 4 fish, I put them in my office tank and within 2 hours they were all dead, but my male betta is still thriving. I am at a loss. Does anyone have any suggestions? We did notice with the last little fish that died, near his tale fins, it was bloody and he also looked a little bloody around the eyes. Does anyone have any suggestions on what is going on? I took a sample of my water into the fish store and she tested it also. She said everything look fine except for the PH level was very low. She didn't have any suggestions nor did they have anything that would help to raise the level. Should I do another water change or buy an additive? I even did some research and they suggested tiny amounts of baking soda until it comes up. I also tested my water out of my tap. I put it in a container and shook it real good for a couple of minutes and it has a PH reading of 6.5. Would the super low PH kill the fish?

Any help would be appreciated.

Iron waffle

PH fluctuations can kill fish, sudden changes in pH can also kill fish. Did you acclimate the 4 fish before you put them in your tank? You might also want to read the article on

THE nitrogen cycle, believe me it's some very useful info.

http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

clinton1621

Yes, very low pH indicates that you have very soft water... this means you have no buffers in the water to keep the pH stable. This will definitely kill the fish because the pH can rapidly swing up or most likely bottom out, especially in a fish tank. I would recommend using crushed coral to get your buffering capacity up and get the pH stabilized. You may want to start using gallon jugs of mineral or spring water to fill the tank after water changes... these will already have safe buffering levels, so you wont have to worry about dangerous pH swings or constantly using crushed coral.

dianeej

Thanks for the info.

Gilbert, I didn't acclimate the fish, like I should have, I am sure. I am reading a book called Aquarium for Idots, (yep that is me ) I just read about how to do this last night. I did it the wrong way by putting the bag in the water for 30 minutes, but like that book said, that does nothing. I am learning.

Clinton, the thing is we don't have real soft water. I live in a very small town, and everyone in the city uses the same water including the fish store. She said she doesn't even carry the PH Up or buffers because it isn't normally a problem. I also use the same water for my home aquairum and no problem, and also when I first set my tank up in May, I didn't have the problem. The problem occured when I did the 100% water change last week and now I can't seem to get the PH to register. When I did the 100% change, I had the old media filter that I put back in, and the gravel, plus I added back in some of the old tank water. I just did another 25% water change and it seemed to have brought it up a little bit. I will do another 25% tomorrow and see if I can get it up that way. I asked a question about water conditioners, thinking maybe I had added too much conditioner in and that may have caused the PH to be super low. Thank you for your help. I appreciate it. I have so much to learn and you guys are great with all of your suggestions and knowledge.

Diane

clinton1621

It could be that the source of your water for that particular tank is being ran through an R.O. filter.... this is quite common in towns with hard water. The R.O. filter will make the water soft by removing all the minerals and metals from the hard water... so even in a town with hard water, it would be possible to get soft water.

Also, no water conditioners do not affect pH.

Take a look at this thread and see if it helps explain things better....

Changing your pH