Most of the fishes dead

On the tank, there are so many reasons why a large number of fish die.
Water Chemistry (including medication), chemical and physical shock, bullying, stress, infestations, microbial infection and toxins in food (especially overfeeding in a freshly set-up tank)....and more.

On the OA, it is not a magical product and is as prone as any treatment to things going wrong and mis-use.
Tell Steve in SeaHorse that you've been chatting to Ian.....he knows what I think of the marketing the owners of OA use (they are from South Africa and are OA own worst enemy when it comes to trying to get the product on a world platform as big as other products )

ian

Guys, urgent help needed, my PH is up to 8. Shrimp might not like it.
Close to me is maxizoo, so I could go and buy test kit, just what brand ( if it really works in OA) and what I could get for Ph buffer to get PH around 7.2-7.8? If I'm not wrong, maxi zoo in Naas stocks only JBL tester kits.
I swithced off air pump, as I noticed, that PH increases when I switch it on, but I like my bubble wand.
edit - I added 2 jugs of britta water, now ph is 7.7, we will see for how long.

As I'm reading along, good PH buffer should be bog wood which I have. Looks like doesnt works. I'm going for water test kit now, so soon I'll post readings and I'll need your all help if possible

So, I bought JBL easy test 6 in 1 test strips.
CL2: 0
NO3: 3-10
NO2: 0-0.5
GH: 14-21*d
KH: 3-6
PH: 6.8
I tried 2 strips in different corners of aquarium, both shows exactly the same.
PH measurement with electronic tester shows 7.7 and I just calibrated it, so should show good.


GH and KH shows warning.
Suggestions?

What fish do you still have?

ian

Test strips are at best a rough guide, as your using OA test strips become pointless. Im not a keeper of shrimps but from what I read they like ph about 6.5 to 7.5. Ph stability is more important than actual reading. Most fish will adapt to a ph but its sudden changes that kill them. Be careful of adding chemicals like ph up or ph down, they are not stable and will crash. Bog wood works to lower ph and will offer stability. Coral sand/shells will raise ph. Both are slow reacting giving fish time to adjust. I go by 1 rule, the more chemicals you add to your tank the more likely you are to f##k it up.

I have 2 swordtails, 1 bristlenose pleco and fan shrimp.
My tap water is very clean-70 ppm. could that be couse of low kh gh ot it is just OA?

There are very few reasons for messing around with water chemistry....and this case is no exception.

Really, if the water chemistry is off the safe scale with such fish then the best thing is to carefully review the causes rather than random fixes.

Often, it is the method of testing that is at fault or the interpretation of the test results.
The test kits are, after all, no more than cheap guides for a quick answer. If a test seems "off" then repeat it at least twice. In an ideal world, all tests should be done multiple times to get an average result......but few people do that (and there is probably no need in view of the kits being cheap quick-checks anyway).

ian

Okey ian, got what you mean, what would be possible fixes?

Did water test today, result exactly the same, except no3 has rised to <25

Its normal for no3 nitrate to rise in a stocked tank it shows the nitrogen cycle is working, once ammonia and nitrite stays at 0. Relax and enjoy your Christmas.

I'm getting paranoia every morning when coming to check my fishes.
Anyway, cheers guys for help, Marry Christmas!

Good morning fish keeper community!
Here is the chart with my 3 days test strip reading. Reminding - I'm using OA.

Current total ppm 330.

A question about ph buffer. Should I increase value of KH to have more stable PH enviroment? If yes, then how to do it? If no - still - how to have more stable PH.
With air pump on my PH goes through the roof. 8.2 is not acceptable. For a temporary fix I added diy co2 reactor, so my ph is 7.2 co2 IN, air pump off and 7.5 when I switch on air pump. Looks a bit more stable then before.

As you see in table CL2 has appeared. From where? I haven't add water to the tank. Only thing I have add is co2 reactor.

Yesterday was feeding pleco with cucumber and boiled pea. He didn't touch them, but swordtails was more then happy of veggie meal, especially pea.

When you quote "Current Total ppm 330".....which parametere is that for?
the ppm is purely units (parts per million), but you need to know what is 330 ppm.

I am wondering if you're getting to much caught up with the water chemistry.

Although it is vitally important to the fish, the tests commonly used are merely a tool to help gauge what might be going......and tools can be mis-used or mis-interpreted or, and this is commondly done, wrong actions taking in response to the results.

I am not sure that adding carbon dioxide to "lower the pH" is a good idea if you have an apparent unstable pH (but there are no tests done to test the pH buffering as of yet).

Adding the carbon dioxide may be helping to poise the pH to be higher if the addition is not placing the water within the acidic buffer system.
The Carbonate/Bicarbonate buffer system is quite complex and needs careful control if trying to use it (ie by adding carbon dioxide) to alter pH and pH buffering.

Am I right in seeing that the air-pump is being cycled on and off?

If the present fish are stable, then let them and the tank settle.
Do not add any more fish for a few weeks.
OR, simply start again with some serial water changes done over a few days.

Water conditioner.....use a good quality one (that gets rid of chlorine, chloramine, ammonia from chloramine, and has vitamin B1 added).

As for thinking OA gives wrong water test results.....the manufacturers need to namew which brands it will give wrong results with as it cannot affect test results for all tests.

Apart from the fish that have been lost already, if the remaining fish are OK then maybe you are worrying about nothing much.

ian

Ian, with total PPM I mean Total Dissolved Solids.

I do understand, that adding co2 is not a fix, but can anybody help me to do the fix?!
I think, that PH over 8 is not good anymore in my fish tank.
You are right, air pump is cycled on and off. Does that stresses fish a lot? Air Pump is always on during the night.
And probably you are one more time right - I'm probably worrying too much...

About water conditioner I understand, what I don't understand, that 2 days Cl2 was 0 and now in third day it is 0.8.

I also run my air pump on a cycle 45mins on 15mins off to allow the large pond pump to cool down, thats day and night.
as your using test dip sticks I would not get too worried about cl2 of 0.8, it may just be cross dripping of water.
As important as water testing is, observing your fish is just as important know first signs of ill health. Cl2 will kill fish but lots of keepers do water changes without using conditioners, its chloramine , chlorine combined with ammonia thsts the real killer. Your fish's gills will burn away and the fish cant breath.
if you can turn down you air pump outflow and leave it on 24/7, buy a flow valve for the air line, its only a few euros. You only have 4 fish so they dont need high o2.

How did you come up with a ppm of 330?
in work we measure gas
And anything over 10ppm is classed as high.

Different chemical parameters can be measured in ppm....ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, magnesium......etc etc etc......it is just the choice of the manufacturer or test chemist whether ppm or other units are used.

If talking about TDS, then 300 ppm is fine for many fish.....but not for all (as I assume that you are using a digital TDS meter = a conductivity meter in disguise)

I did a mini piece on this at

www.irishfishkeepers.com/index.php/forum...dissolved-solids-tds

(on the last post, I quoted some fish recommended for different TDS values).

The change in readings of chlorine (Cl2) may be due to simplt test errors or it could be due to chlorine being released from chloramines if not properly dealt with when conditioning the water.

As I do not use the JBL test system, I have not tested how sensitive it is or what exactly it tests regarding chlorine (ie many tests do not just test what it says on the can)

ian

irish-zx10r wrote:

How did you come up with a ppm of 330?
in work we measure gas
And anything over 10ppm is classed as high.

ian in next post after you explains how I got it

My tap water is 74ppm (0.7 conversation). The only thing I have added to my tank is OA and JBL novo colour flakes. And at the very start I added stress coat and stress zyme.