Alkalinity TOOOO low

I have lost several fish in the last week due to what I believe may be the
alkaline being too low in my tank. I've done 2 water changes & even I've
tried to raise the PH a little in attempts to raise the alkaline. The tank
is 15 years old, however I've had it in storage for the last 5 years. I set
it back up 2 weeks ago. Here are the test results.

Nitrate (NO3) - 0
Nitrate (NO2) - .5
Hardness - 75 soft
Total Alkalinity- 0
PH - 7.2 neutral
Ammonia - .25 safe

I am using the 5 tests in one strip (Quick Dip) to test.

What I currently have in the tank is...
5 female bettas
2 black molly's
1 swordtail
3 green cory cats
1 Red tail shark
3 Black skirt tetra
4 White skirt tetra

It is a 55 gallon tank

Any suggestions?

hopenfuture wrote:
I have lost several fish in the last week due to what I believe may be the
alkaline being too low in my tank. I've done 2 water changes & even I've
tried to raise the PH a little in attempts to raise the alkaline. The tank
is 15 years old, however I've had it in storage for the last 5 years. I set
it back up 2 weeks ago. Here are the test results.

Nitrate (NO3) - 0
Nitrate (NO2) - .5
Hardness - 75 soft
Total Alkalinity- 0
PH - 7.2 neutral
Ammonia - .25 safe

I am using the 5 tests in one strip (Quick Dip) to test.

What I currently have in the tank is...
5 female bettas
2 black molly's
1 swordtail
3 green cory cats
1 Red tail shark
3 Black skirt tetra
4 White skirt tetra

It is a 55 gallon tank

Any suggestions?


Well at the wish of not seeming flippant I would suggest posting on a
freshwater group....however I do sympathise with your reasons for not
wishing to post on the Usenet groups.....a good group is TFA and there
are a great bunch of folks there that will help you:-

http://groups.google.com/group/The-F...m?lnk=li&hl=en

Your tank is cycling and you will probably find that you have added way
too many fish too quickly and things may get worse before they get
better. Check this link for details on cycling a tank in a freshwater
environment:-

http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html

Gilll

Thanks! I got on the cycling website you suggested. It helped alot! One
suggestion...

"The nitrogen cycle can be sped up or ``jump started'' in a number of ways.
Unfortunately, they require access to an established tank, which a beginning
aquarist may not have available. The basic idea is to find an established
tank, take some of the bacteria out of it and place them in the new tank.
Most filters have some sort of foam block or floss insert on which nitrifying
bacteria attach. Borrowing all or part of such an insert and placing it in
the new tank's filter gets things going more quickly."

I have a 5 gallon tank that is over 1 1/2 old. I'm going to try & jumpstart
off of that tank.

Gill Passman wrote:
I have lost several fish in the last week due to what I believe may be the
alkaline being too low in my tank. I've done 2 water changes & even I've
[quoted text clipped - 23 lines]

Any suggestions?

Well at the wish of not seeming flippant I would suggest posting on a
freshwater group....however I do sympathise with your reasons for not
wishing to post on the Usenet groups.....a good group is TFA and there
are a great bunch of folks there that will help you:-

http://groups.google.com/group/The-F...m?lnk=li&hl=en

Your tank is cycling and you will probably find that you have added way
too many fish too quickly and things may get worse before they get
better. Check this link for details on cycling a tank in a freshwater
environment:-

http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html

Gilll

--
Message posted via PetKB.com
http://www.petkb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx...-reef/200703/1

hopenfuture via PetKB.com wrote:
Thanks! I got on the cycling website you suggested. It helped alot! One
suggestion...

"The nitrogen cycle can be sped up or ``jump started'' in a number of ways.
Unfortunately, they require access to an established tank, which a beginning
aquarist may not have available. The basic idea is to find an established
tank, take some of the bacteria out of it and place them in the new tank.
Most filters have some sort of foam block or floss insert on which nitrifying
bacteria attach. Borrowing all or part of such an insert and placing it in
the new tank's filter gets things going more quickly."

I have a 5 gallon tank that is over 1 1/2 old. I'm going to try & jumpstart
off of that tank.

Hmmmmm.....not sure that you would get enough good bacteria from a 5
gallon tank to successfully seed a 55 gall tank with your current fish
load....won't harm but I doubt that it will help that much.....if it was
the other way round it should work - ie using it from a larger
established tank to seed a smaller one with a lower fish load - do it
myself all the time....it might also work if you had a very low fish
load in the tank to be seeded but I'm doubtful even then.

There are some products available that are supposed to help with the
cycling process - don't know where you are located but if the US then
I've heard good reports of BioSpira - I understand that you need to make
sure that it has been refrigerated correctly before buying it. It isn't
available over here in the UK so I can't give a personal recommendation
based on my experience. I remember seeing a similar product over here in
the LFS the other day but skimmed over it as the only new tanks I'm
setting up at the moment are SW.

I think you might need to return some of your fish if possible, until
your cycle is complete. Your ammonia will spike, followed by nitrites
and both are harmful to your fish, if not fatal. Keep testing the water
daily to monitor it. As your ammonia rises try a product such as
Ammolock to neutralise the effect, as your nitrites rise try adding salt
to aleviate the damage to the gills.....

Gill
Also posting on The Freshwater Aquarium
http://groups.google.com/group/The-F...quarium?lnk=li

"hopenfuture" u32892@uwe wrote in news:6fdeab9ff297a@uwe:

I have lost several fish in the last week due to what I believe may be
the alkaline being too low in my tank. I've done 2 water changes &
even I've tried to raise the PH a little in attempts to raise the
alkaline. The tank is 15 years old, however I've had it in storage
for the last 5 years. I set it back up 2 weeks ago. Here are the
test results.

Nitrate (NO3) - 0
Nitrite (NO2) - .5
Hardness - 75 soft
Total Alkalinity- 0
PH - 7.2 neutral
Ammonia - .25 safe

I am using the 5 tests in one strip (Quick Dip) to test.

What I currently have in the tank is...
5 female bettas
2 black molly's
1 swordtail
3 green cory cats
1 Red tail shark
3 Black skirt tetra
4 White skirt tetra

It is a 55 gallon tank

Any suggestions?



First suggestion; a marine reef forum isn't the right location for your
questions about a freshwater tank. Try rec.aquaria.freshwater.misc next
time.

Second: your tank is not yet cycled, and you have a big load of fish for
a tank thats two weeks old. If you can return the bettas, mollys,
swordtail, cories, and shark, then the seven tetra might have a
reasonable chance at lasting.
Notice that your ammonia and nitrites are present, but no nitrates are
registering. The bacteria that convert ammonia and nitrites into
nitrates haven't developed in your system yet. Keep an eye on ammonia
and nitrite with only the tetras, and wait for both values to go to zero,
with a corresponding increase in nitrates. You can then start to add
more fish _slowly_.
0 alkalinity is also a potential problem, albeit much less than not
being cycled. Add some (1 to 2 cups) aragonite sand, either into a nylon
suspended in the power filter, as a layer in a section of a cannister
filter, or scattered over the substrate. Others use "wonder shells" for
improved buffering capacity, too.

Check out www.netmax.tk and read up on the nitrogen cycle.

Good luck!
DaveZ

atomweaver wrote:


Check out www.netmax.tk and read up on the nitrogen cycle.

Good luck!
DaveZ

NetMax is a prolific poster on and a founder member of TFA......

Gill

Gill Passman wrote in news:460ad054$0$759
:

atomweaver wrote:


Check out www.netmax.tk and read up on the nitrogen cycle.

Good luck!
DaveZ

NetMax is a prolific poster on and a founder member of TFA......

Gill


Umm, was this comment directed at me? I know this, which is why I like his
site so much, even though I don't like Google Groups.

DaveZ

atomweaver wrote:


Umm, was this comment directed at me? I know this, which is why I like his
site so much, even though I don't like Google Groups.

DaveZ

Not aimed at you at all :-)....just a further advisory to the OP because
you mentioned NetMax as a great resource of information.....google
groups are not to everyone's taste and many prefer Usenet....they have
their pluses and their minuses.....

Gill :-)

"Gill Passman" wrote in message
...
atomweaver wrote:


Umm, was this comment directed at me? I know this, which is why I like
his site so much, even though I don't like Google Groups.

DaveZ

Not aimed at you at all :-)....just a further advisory to the OP because
you mentioned NetMax as a great resource of information.....google groups
are not to everyone's taste and many prefer Usenet....they have their
pluses and their minuses.....

Gill :-)

Yea but NetMax is from the groups.
That name has kudo......
I would compare it to aXXo
But I agree, his site is a good beginner faq
and he is a nuetral source of info.
which is rare these days
Man has done a lot of good,
for a lot of peeps and a lotta fish.
WoooooooT!!

hopenfuture wrote:
I have lost several fish in the last week due to what I believe may be the
alkaline being too low in my tank. I've done 2 water changes & even I've
tried to raise the PH a little in attempts to raise the alkaline. The tank
is 15 years old, however I've had it in storage for the last 5 years. I set
it back up 2 weeks ago. Here are the test results.

I was going to suggest something like reef buffer to get the alk up, but
then I see:


Nitrate (NO3) - 0
Nitrate (NO2) - .5
Hardness - 75 soft
Total Alkalinity- 0
PH - 7.2 neutral
Ammonia - .25 safe

Hardness?!?!

And that PH is way to low... Hmmmm... WTF?
and *0* alkalinity? Zero?


I am using the 5 tests in one strip (Quick Dip) to test.

What I currently have in the tank is...
5 female bettas
2 black molly's
1 swordtail
3 green cory cats
1 Red tail shark
3 Black skirt tetra
4 White skirt tetra

It is a 55 gallon tank

Any suggestions?


Yes. I have a suggestion. Don't try to keep freshwater fish in a reef
tank. The sal****er will kill them.