hard water/ph

Question
Hello!  i have been having a horrible time with my fish aquarium!  I love my fish and don't want them to die anymore.  my snails my frog and my guppies/fry just keep dying.  i clean the tank regularly (its 30 gallon) and feed sparingly.  However my fish have all died from exploding ulcers.  i have used everything i can think of to make them better but they all died.  i recently tested my water and found everything was great except my PH and i had hard water.  i read on this site that i could us reverse osmosis water and that should do the trick.  can you think of anything else i can do to treat the water and keep my new fish alive!!!  i would greatly appreciate your help with my situations.  thanks, Veronica

Answer
While the high pH may be a problem I would question the fish first. For example, do you get your fish from an independent store or a chain store? If it is from a chain store likely the problem is not yours but the stores, who is selling you bad fish. I would highly advise treating the remaining fish with an all-in-one internal and external parasite treatment. This is because high pH should not be this big of a problem to cause so many issues with the hardy fish you have mentioned. Also, you can buy a pH down treatment but it only fixes the problem temporarily unless you use it on a regular basis. Also, be sure you are declorinating the water. I know this is a very basic step but I have forgotten this easy step a few times. Yes, reverse osmosis water would be good and in fact if you have a health food store near you, like Green Life, they sell already processed reverse osmosis water! That way you do not have to buy it from an expensive store and also you dont have to spend tons on the machines. Just check around the local health food stores and see if they sell it. They usually sell it by the gallon and its a very easy way to get reverse osmosis water. Next, I would make sure you are not accidently using a chemical to clean the tank and not washing it out all the way, very easy to do. These are some of my ideas. Oh, do not clean the tank too often, it needs time to develop happy bacteria, do not add the store bought stuff, and this helps to cut down on how often you have to clean it. In fact, I have a 30 gallon that I have not completely cleaned in over three months because it is so well developed and balanced it practically maintians itself. However, I do of course do monthly partical water changes, bout 15%, and make sure the filter is clean. These are my ideas, I hope you find out how to make everything work. Sometimes the tanks just dont do well starting off but soon you will be a feel for it and it will come naturally and you will have better success. Just dont give up. I hope this helps. Let me know if you need anything else.