ph and fish

1852 Views 11 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Byron, May 27, 2013

mgkdad

Discussion Starter · May 25, 2013

i have two guppies two mollies and two platies well one of the mollies died today and im not sure why so when i checked the water before it was showing that the ph was 6.0 and the ammonia was .50 is it possible that the ph had a big reason that the fish died. I dont have a thermometer on the tank yet or a heater but the water feels kinda cold, its a 10 gallon tank and the other fish seem to be pretty good so far and im not sure what caused the fish to died.:-(

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JDM

· #2 · May 25, 2013

If your pH is 6 I might think that the water is too soft for live bearers. I don't know what the specs are but they need hard water which usually brings a higher pH with it. Having ammonia is not good either of course, it should be zero.

What is your water hardness, GH and KH?

How old is the tank? Live plants or not? (Actually, I looked and you list no plants)

Water change routine?

Jeff

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thekoimaiden

· #3 · May 26, 2013

Hi and wecome to the forum. Your pH is probably one of the contributing factors to your molly's death. They prefer hard, alkaline (pH above 7) water. Another reason for the sudden death might be an uncycled tank. Having a reading of ammonia indicate that your tank isn't cycled. How long has your tank been set up?

As to the thermometer/heater issue, the fish you listed don't exactly need a heater; in the summertime in the southern US your house will stay warm enough to keep the tank at a good temp for them. Unless you run your AC down at like 70F. Then you might want a small heater for the tank.

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mgkdad

Discussion Starter · #4 · May 26, 2013

the tank has been up for about 4 weeks now and i check the water about every two days and i do a 10% water change twice a week and the water still seems a little foggy i have a anubias nana and a anubias afzelii both are floating in the tank now and i have a moss ball and ammo chips in the filter but i still can't seem to get rid of the ammonia.

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fish monger

· #5 · May 26, 2013

As has already been mentioned, the PH and probable hardness of your water aren't very well suited for live bearers; however, I suspect that the ammonia was the primary reason for your fish dieing. Two or three good size bunches of fast growing stem plants would really help with the ammonia. The plants that you already have are slow growers and don't use the ammonia as quickly as fast growing plants. Plant profiles are provided in the fish profile section and there is a subsection especially dedicated to stem plants. Knowing your water parameters out of the tap would be good. Also, many members suggest using Prime as your water conditioner.

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JDM

· #6 · May 26, 2013

4 weeks is a little soon with few plants. Adding plants as FM suggested would work, using Prime with your water changes and stepping them up to 3 times a week will let the Prime deal with excess ammonia and probable nitrites, I'd expect those as well but you didn't mention if you tested for them.

If you are on city water get the water specs from the utility, they can give you the hardness readings. You also should be using a conditioner already and perhaps it's only ammo lock which doesn't handle nitrites and that could be the issue as well. If you are on a well... the conditioning isn't needed but using prime anyway will still deal with the toxins. Ammo chips I am not familiar with but I assume that they only last a certain time then are useless... and only deal with ammonia, not nitrites.

Jeff

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Byron

· #7 · May 26, 2013

I agree with what others have said. I would also add that you will have too many fish in a 10g as they grow, so don't replace the mollies.

If you check our fish profiles for the named species, it will give you minimum tank sizes and other information too.

Byron.

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mgkdad

Discussion Starter · #8 · May 26, 2013

i did a water check in the tank and these are the results...ph-6.6, high range ph-less than 7.4, ammonia-.50, nitrite-0ppm, nitrate-oppm and i also did a water check on the tap water(well water) ph-6.0, high range ph-less the 7.4, ammonia-0ppm, nitrite-0ppm, nitrate-0ppm. i've been using prime when i do water changes and i've been feeding the fish once a day just a pinch,i used ph-up to get the ph from 6.0 to 6.6 i'm doing it very slowly and i plan on going to 3 water changes a week to try and lower the ammonia level as well as getting some stem plants not sure which ones to start with.

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fish monger

· #9 · May 26, 2013

When all is said and done, to get plants quickly, you need to get what is available. Usually, you can get anacharis anywhere and, since your water is rather cool, it would probably work. If there are alternatives, try those. An important issue is what type of lighting you have. Can you give us a description of that ?

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mgkdad

Discussion Starter · #10 · May 27, 2013

the bulbs came with the lid and tank i think its two 15 watt bulbs not ment for plants i guess they are used to give more light to the tank so you can see inside better.

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fish monger

· #11 · May 27, 2013

You might want to pick up a couple 9 watt daylight CFL bulbs to replace those. You can find them just about everywhere these days...the home improvement stores and WalMart for sure.

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Byron

· #12 · May 27, 2013

fish monger said:
You might want to pick up a couple 9 watt daylight CFL bulbs to replace those. You can find them just about everywhere these days...the home improvement stores and WalMart for sure.

I think the wattage will be 10 watts, at least they are where I live. Just wanted to mention this, so the OP doesn't go hunting around for 9 watt because we told him to get those.

And, get the "Daylight" type, they will have a Kelvin rating of 6500K. These are much better for plants, and they give a true colour rendition. I have two 10w GE Daylight 6500K over my 10g and 20g tanks, the plants are thriving.

Byron.

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