P H problems

Question
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Followup To
Question - Hi Cris, I have neither one of those fish. Some one told me to put aquarium salt in once a week. What do you think? I will go to the pet store and get some shells. I will let you know what happens. If nothing else, my tank will be pretty. And I will start changing the water weekly. Thank you for your help. Doreen
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Followup To
Question -
Hey Chris, I have a 30 gallon aquarium that I've had for about 2 years. Just recently I've had problems with keeping the P H up. I'll clean it and it will be fine for about a week and then it will go back down. It will go clear down to 6.4. I've used P H up and numerus other p h products. I keep losing fish. Thanks for any advise you can give me.  Doreen
Answer -
Hi Doreen;

How often do you make water changes?
How much water do you remove when making a water change?
How often do you vacuum the gravel?
Do you have any driftwood in the tank?
What kind of fish, how many, and how big?
Does there seem to be any leftover food anywhere 5 to 10 minutes after feeding?

Let me know as soon as you can......

Chris Robbins

Hi Chris, since I've had the ph problem. I change the water at least once a month. Sometimes twice. I remove half the water. I vacum the gravel when I change the water. I don't have driftwood. I have 2 redtails ,three tiger barbs,three red bellies, 3 bolfin sharks, one irradecent shark, one catfish, one sucker fish, and one crawl fish.All are small and medium, except the one shark, he's 5 inches. Very little leftiver food if any. And I also noticed this last time I cleaned it, the water was a little green. It's not by a window, and it's been in that same spot since I've had it. And never had an algae problem before. I just cleaned it Saturday, chaged half the water and checked it right now, it's 7.2. But by the end of the week, it will be down to 6.4 again. HELP !!! Doreen
Answer -
Hi Doreen;

Sounds like the water in your area is very soft. If you have a water softener hooked up to your house tap water, try to bypass it when you fill the tank. Change 25% of the water once a week while vacuuming the gravel. You have a full population in there so the fish just need the water changes more frequently. Every two weeks leaves the pH to drop too far and then you can easily lose fish from the stress of raising it naturally with a water change. Even without the pH problem, this number of fish needs water changes every week.

If you have the water tested and find out it is indeed soft, there are a couple of things you can do. Small pieces of limestone and shells are a good solution. They will slowly release minerals and hardness into the water. Or, crushed and well-rinsed oyster shell can be added. Check out your lcoal fish store that sells saltwater aquarium supplies. Saltwater tanks need high pH and the decorations often used in them help them to stay that way. Coral, shells and ocean rocks release minerals that are essential. Be very careful to choose pieces that aren't sharp or very rough. They can hurt your fish, especially since they aren't used to them.

All the fish you have are growing and some will get quite large. The irridescent shark will get over a foot long. The red-bellies you refer to, are they a tetra or do you know? There is a fish called a red-belly pacu that gets over 24 inches long. Here is a link to a photo;
http://www.giveusahome.co.uk/allpets/fish/redbellypacu.jpg

I am really hoping that isn't the fish in question. They will eat everything you have as they grow up! Most of the fish you have are pretty aggressive too, so it is possible that they are bullying some of their tankmates to death. Redtail and rainbow sharks should be kept alone. That means ONE rainbow OR ONE redtail in the tank. They are very terretorial and will eventually kill until one dominant shark survives. Tiger barbs should be in groups of at least 3. If you lose any, get more. They are fin nippers and distribute their aggression towards each other as a school. If there are too few of them they get distracted by the other fish and nip them.

Could the "bolfin sharks" be "bala sharks"? Here is a link to a pic of them too;
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/barb-pictures/bala_1.jpg
These guys also get about a foot long.

I don't want to scare you with all this information. I just want to help you save your fish. So many hobbyists aren't told the facts about the fish they buy. Usually after it's too late and most of the other fish are eaten or killed. Hopefully we can keep that from happening to yours.

Followups welcome

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins

Come on over and join us on the freshwater fish forum at About.com to get even more information too;
http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/questionsanswers/a/naavigateforum.htm

My member name is ChrisR62. See You There!  

Answer
Hi Doreen;

That's great news! I'm glad you have smaller types of fish. I feel better having asked you about it.

Aquarium salt is good to use for disease prevention, because it strenthens the slime coat. The slime coating on fish protects them like the oil on human skin protects us. Salt should be used according to gallons of water in your tank. Use 1/2 teaspoon of salt per gallon for the first dose. After that, add more only when you make a water change. You will need to add 1/2 teaspoon for every gallon of water changed. You don't want to add salt for the whole 30 gallons every week or you will soon have to be switching to saltwater fish! (Yikes!) The salt will stay in the tank unless water is removed, so if you add water to top it off from evaporation, don't add more salt.

Hoping for the best in your water hardening efforts!

More followups welcome

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins