Ph Swing???

[mitchellh97]

I’ve been using well water with my tap to slowly being ph down to my tap water (6.0ph) from the stores water (7.8). I worked it down to about 6.8 so far and the fish is extremely happy. Today I came down to check and my flowerhorn beat itself up overnight with some scratches and missing scale but she was still acting very normal, but not hungry. I figured something in the water was nothing her and did a 75% water change without the well water assuming it would only drop a few decimals. It dropped from 6.8 to 6.0. The fish almost instantly started hiding in the corner on her belly and lost all her color. No laboured breathing no eating and doesn’t care if I try I net her. She can still swim when she wants to but refuses to leave. I went and got well water and brought some back and managed to get it up to 6.6 within an hour of the ph drop. It’s been about 5 hours since then and she is still in the corner not moving. Not sure what to do.

 

[sfsamm]

Stop messing with it. Leave it be right now is the best thing you can do. PH swings Luke that are intensely stressful. Turn out her lights and give her a couple days.

 

[tdg2100]

How do the nitrates in your tap water test? In Iowa it's so high I can't use it... It's far higher than the water in the tank. So high it can't be measured with the API tests.

 

[mitchellh97]

No nitrates in my water luckily. I’ve only been using the well water to keep lowering the ph gently 1/3 well 2/3 my water so I can eventually get the fish just on my water. The fish was sold to me in almost 8.0 water. So huge jump. And I have to do big water changes because my filter went through a mini cycle because my previous stock wasn’t wasn’t large enough to have enough bacteria to handle a flowerhorn. Didn’t know until after. So I’ve been dosing prime and doing 50-70% water changes every second day. So I use well water to keep it gradual. 50-70% water changes with just my water would be a big jump each time