Question by Kimberley: What is making my tank so alkaline and killing all my fish?!?
I have lost, no joke, 20 neon tetras over a week, and a molly and a crown betta just today. I am completely devastated. Throughout the last two weeks no one that I called or spoke to could tell me what was wrong. The tank was pristine – 5 gallons, filtered, aerated and heated to 25C. Most neons and the molly couldn’t last 24 hours. I checked my water around day 4 and it was fine for all categories.
My betta started developing fin rot 2 days ago, so I treated it with Wardley Fungal-Ade, but there wasn’t enough time and the betta passed today. I tested my water again and it was extremely soft and so alkaline it was off the colour chart – my guess it would have been around 7.8. I have no idea what caused this change and can only assume it is something in my tank. I have a live plant (anubias?), aquarium gravel, 2 “decorations” from an aquarium store, a heater and a filter, and nothing else. I haven’t sprayed anything in my room, no deodorant or bug spray. I quickly put some pH-down in the tank to gradually lower the pH, but within a matter of hours it was back around 7.6!! I put some more pH-down in and it happened again!!
Please help, I only have a blue platy (who i think is sick anyway) and a baby bristlenose pleco (who isn’t eating) in there now, and I really don’t want to lose them too.
I have just read online that having the aerator going can increase pH as well. Is this true? I have had my aerator going 24/7 for the last week. However, my aerator and filter are part of the same device, so I can’t turn the aerator off without turning the filter off too.
To K.Plesner: Thankyou for replying so quickly. I have just spread two palm-fulls of crushed shells over the bottom of the tank.
I must stress that I never had all these fish in my tank at once – there was only ever 6 fish MAXIMUM. I put some crushed shells at the bottom of the tank to raise the hardness.
Best answer:
Answer by K. Plesner
If your water is very soft, the pH value is almost impossible to control. I’d raise the hardness a bit (for instance by adding some crushed corals to the gravel in the tank). If you do this, your pH should become more stable and your fish should stand a lot better chance of surviving.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
