Water at new house is acidic! Help!

[fishmama]

Hi!

I am newly registered to this forum but have been lurking about for a while. We were thrilled to buy a new home and a week ago we finally moved our 75 gallon tank here. We have one Midas Cichlid and we had 13 White Convict Cichlids. I realize that's a lot of big fish for a 75 gal tank but we inherited them with the tank when we bought the tank 5 years ago and we've made due ever since. Everyone of them has been healthy in that time frame.

We drained the tank as low as we could with a siphon and we transported the fish in closed buckets with their original water to the new house. We emptied the water from the buckets into the tank and used our water at the new house to fill the remainder of the tank. We have well water. 7 of the white convicts have died. We didn't know why at first, we were just thinking that it was trauma from the move. But when we tested the water it was on the acid side- 6.8 pH. Then we tested the water straight from the faucet and sure enough the pH was 6.8. All other levels are testing normal. I don't know the exact number but the pH at our old house was higher. Acid water was never a problem for us. That is the only thing I can contribute to all 7 fish dying so quickly.

We bought a bottle of pH up after the first 3 convicts died but that didn't seem to work. We lost 2 more and then another one. Tonight we came home and there was 1 more dead. As a last ditch effort to help our fish we put baking soda in the water tonight 3 3/4 tsp. I'm not sure if that was a wise decision or not.

I could use any advice anyone could provide! Thank you!

 

[DaveK]

Considering that both species of cichlids are native to central America I don't think a pH of 6.8 would be a factor at all.

I suspect the problem was the move. That would place a lot of stress on the fish especially large ones. While shipping there tends to be a major build up of ammonia in the shipping water. Usually water use to ship fish in should be discarded, and not put in the new tank setup.

Also, I would consider that the water in your new location could be different enough so that it stresses the fish also. This brings up the question, what water parameters did you test for? pH is only one of many. For FW I'd also be interested in general hardness and carbonate hardness.

Did you treat the tap water before use? Many municipal water supplies use chloramine. This is a lot harder to get out of the water. You need to use a product such as Seachem Prime. There are others that are as good, but it's got to state that it will handle chloramine.

Acclimation of the fish is also critical, again especially with large ones. They need time to adjust.

Your tank could also be going through a cycle. Does the new water now test positive for ammonia or nitrite? You may need to do some big water changes. Fish are a lot more sensitive to ammonia at a lower pH.

At this point, I suspect that the damage has already been done. About all you can do is wait it out. Adding baking soda to alter FW pH is fine, but it's got to be done slowly. 3 3/4 tsp may be far too much. How much it will move pH also depends upon the hardness of the water, so you do need to go carefully. You also need about 24 hours for baking soda to reach it's final point in pH. It can act a bit funny as it goes into solution.

Good luck.

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

to ReefSanctuary, a real Sanctuary of reef forums, with lots of very nice members

Sorry to hear about your lose

 

[jerry26]

+1 on the prime. That stuff is awesome.

 

[ddelozier]

I raised cichlids for years. The PH of the water doesnt sound like the issue. Even if the water was treated to remove chloromines, i suspect one of two things. either A) you used a combination of hot/cold water from the tap(adjusted with or without thermometer) or you pumped strait from the tap wihtout treatment.


Cichlids arent as sensitive to ph as say tiger barbs. They are rather hardy. however they are very sensitive to water temperatures, and Metals in your water. If you use hot/cold tap water mixed, you are drawing water from the Hot water heater. HW Heaters are notorious for becoming repositories for whatever comes in your water. Whether thats copper(from household plumbing), Calcium, iron, potassium, etc(list too long), Water from the "Hot water side" Is in the opinion of several plumbers i know, NOT fit to drink/consume.

I totaly +1 on the Prime...but even that wont get all of the junk out if you try and "Make the water warm enough" out of the tap. A good RO/DI unit is cheap, but it will save your fanny. In the case of the PH being that high, you can attempt to lower it. Take some baking soda, put it on a cookie sheet and bake it at 375+ for 15 min. Then add this to cool water and stur/shake for 3-5 min. Add this at 2tbs ever 4-8 hours. wait 1 hour after adding, and retest PH.

 

[jerry26]

What does baking it do?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[PEMfish]

Baking drives off CO2.

The PH swing dint kill them, unless it was bigger than you implied. 6.8 will be fine once they adjust, a bit on the low side sure, but you want a stable tank, not a perfect one. The swings in ph you will induce by adding ph+ or sodium bicarbonate will be worse for the fish than 6.8. So in my opinion you would be best to slowly let the ph drop. Slowly.

Is what did kill them, it sounds, is that hard shock you put them through when you refilled the tank. The new water was not the right temp, unless you had it sitting in a stock tank for a few hours with heaters first, and a good thermometer. There were other differences in the new water to, such as ph. Probably GH, KH, O2 level, phosphorous, etc., as well. You did nothing to acclimate them to this. That sudden shock of heres a whole lot of new, different water to swim in was to much to take after a car ride.

You may be experiencing a cycle. The move may have wiped out you biological filter. For the same reasons as the fish, or if it dried out. If further information on cycling is needed there is already alot of helpful literature out there.

And welcome to RS, I'm sorry to hear about the fish, and enjoy the new house. I hope everything else goes well for you in the move.

Also, at times of stress, disease like to take over. Watch for ich.