[Mallory M.]

I have been trying to make this 10 gallon tank livable for some guppies and shrimp for quite a while now. I decided to start over and hopefully this time it will work. I started with dry starting my grass at the bottom of the tank and have eventually added water to it last week. I know that it has not made its full cycle yet but I have a feeling it’s never going to due to past experiences.

I am on well water and about a year or two ago the water table changed and has started all of these problems and I can no longer get fish to live anymore. My well water has a very high PH as well as high ammonia. In order to combat this I have added Cleaning Bacteria by Tetra, and Seachem Prime. I belive this has worked because my Ammonia is now at Zero and so is my nitrite, but my Nitrates (between 0ppm and 5ppm) and PH (8ppm) are still extremely high. This is the issue I kept running into before I just can’t get my PH and Nitrates down. And I have run out of things to try.

I have tried to figure this out before and realized that my GH and KH may have something to do with my issues. My GH used to be really high and and my KH was really low but by adding Indian almond leaves and some limestone rocks this time I have gotten my water to good levels. My GH was one drop (1* or 17.9ppm) and my KH was 8 drops (8* or 143.2ppm). So now my my GH is a little low because of how much tennis is in my water. I was wondering how big of a water change I should do to help lower bring my GH up some. The instructions that came with my testing kit also said that my KH should be a little lower to about (3*-6* or 50-100ppm) for live plants should I be worried about that since it is correct for guppies.

At this point I am not sure what to do anymore. Since I have fixed a few things should I let it just sit, should I do water changes if so how much and ho often?

 

[Death_by_Dinosaurs]

The amount of nitrate is fine. So is the water hardness, at least for many fish including guppies. Try putting some in, and see what happens.

 

[Mallory M.]

The amount of nitrate is fine. So is the water hardness, at least for many fish including guppies. Try putting some in, and see what happens.

I am afraid to put in more fish because so many have died and I don’t know why my PH is so high.

 

[Death_by_Dinosaurs]

My ph is higher than that. 8.7 at last test. I keep nerites , mollies, platies, cories, and a few neons at the moment. I have also kept guppies, bettas, and mystery snails.
Cories don’t do as well in hard water, I’ve had ones last over a year though. Other than that, smooth sailing.

And to answer your previous question about kh, guppies and most plants have wider ranges than we give them credit for. Also there isn’t one kh amount for “plants” . That’s too broad a category.

 

[Death_by_Dinosaurs]

I am afraid to put in more fish because so many have died and I don’t know why my PH is so high.

If you are worried about killing fish (witch you should be) try some plants, see how that goes them add fish.
Or maybe nerite snails.

 

[Mallory M.]

If you are worried about killing fish (witch you should be) try some plants, see how that goes them add fish.
Or maybe nerite snails.

Ok I do have plants in there already but from past experiences they seem to do fine, it my guppies always die from nitrate poisoning.

 

[Death_by_Dinosaurs]

Interesting. How fast do they die. Nitrate isn’t usually a fast killer.

And perhaps consider nerite snails.

 

[Mallory M.]

If you are worried about killing fish (witch you should be) try some plants, see how that goes them add fish.
Or maybe nerite snails.

They usually die within 3-5 days of them showing illness. They would get arks on their body and then stay at the surface gasping for air and then eventually they would lay on the bottom and then die.

 

[Death_by_Dinosaurs]

Is your tank well filtered?
And if you keep getting the exact same type of fish and it dies, it might not be anything you are doing. Try a different breed of guppy or platy maybe?

 

[Mallory M.]

Is your tank well filtered?
And if you keep getting the exact same type of fish and it dies, it might not be anything you are doing. Try a different breed of guppy or platy maybe?

My tank is filtered I use a sponge filter with some char ole media and some cotton. I do counting to get guppies and gosht shrimp. The guppies continue to die the same way and they shrimp take a little longer but they do even die. I did do a 25% water change today and added some PH down to see if that will help any.

 

[Mallory M.]

My tank is filtered I use a sponge filter with some char ole media and some cotton. I do counting to get guppies and gosht shrimp. The guppies continue to die the same way and they shrimp take a little longer but they do even die. I did do a 25% water change today and added some PH down to see if that will help any.

The PH down didn’t do anything at all so I have no idea how to lower my tank PH.