water change causes cloudy water and residue (fish distress)

Thanks for all the help - sadly, it came too late. I returned home from
work this morning and found I lost 7 of my fish, including 2 large
silver dollars and 1 angel that were about 10 years old (only 4 small
angels are hanging in there). This is really strange - even the gravel
is covered with this white residue (a major hit this time, and I wasn't
home to tend to the emergency). I will look into your suggestions to
determine the cause of this so I can avoid a future tragedy before I
replace any innocent fish to suffer the same fate. It will be a while
before I get used to not seeing those big guys around the tank. I can't
ever remember having such a loss as this, and I've been keeping fresh
water tanks for almost 30 years.

Thanks for all the help,

John Rogers


Elaine T wrote:
Margolis wrote:

I don't know anybody that uses pure ro/di water. That would almost be
suicide. Most add some baking soda and other minerals to restore the
proper
balance. The fish and plants need the electrolytes and minerals in the
water to survive. And with 0kh, your ph would have a tendency to
crash to
fatal levels for most fish.

Just my 2¢

Agreed. I buy the 25 cent/gallon RO water and mix it 50/50 with my
liquid rock tapwater. That brings the pH down from 7.8 to a more
reasonable 7.4.