High PH

I need some help! Pond is 5 years old.
Probably 1200 gallons.Light fish load. We have several of the original
fish & have
lost 2 or 3 over winters & 1 now & then.
But we've lost 3 in the last couple weeks.
My fav was dead today. Had water tested yesterday. They said everything
was good. Rather high PH,but not enough to klll fish. Today I had it
tested at another place. Same story. So I had water tested
at a 3rd fish store & Nitrates,Nitrites & amonia is good.Hardness is at
425. PH a whopping 9.4 & he said get fish out & change all water! Also
he said put in a cup
salt per 100 gallons We have a lot of plants & they look scorched on
edges. For the first time we have pea soup watr that won't clear with
Micro-lift. Micro lift is the only different thing we've added this
year.
Any ideas as to what we should do? Iris.

First of all I would not do a 100% water change it will kill the fish
most likely. If your well or tap water has a lower pH I would start doing
10% water changes every few days to lower the pH.Have you fertilized the
lawn lately? Had any big rains which might have washed fertilizer into the
pond?

"Iris" wrote in message
...
I need some help! Pond is 5 years old.
Probably 1200 gallons.Light fish load. We have several of the original
fish & have
lost 2 or 3 over winters & 1 now & then.
But we've lost 3 in the last couple weeks.
My fav was dead today. Had water tested yesterday. They said everything
was good. Rather high PH,but not enough to klll fish. Today I had it
tested at another place. Same story. So I had water tested
at a 3rd fish store & Nitrates,Nitrites & amonia is good.Hardness is at
425. PH a whopping 9.4 & he said get fish out & change all water! Also
he said put in a cup
salt per 100 gallons We have a lot of plants & they look scorched on
edges. For the first time we have pea soup watr that won't clear with
Micro-lift. Micro lift is the only different thing we've added this
year.
Any ideas as to what we should do? Iris.

We've had plenty of big rains,but there's nothing been washed in the
pond. No spraying of herbicides or pesticides.We have well water.There's
green stuff that looks kind of like jello stuck to the sides
at the top of liner. Stuff doesn't smell. I thought it is accumulation
of the different knd of algae. Never had this stuff other years.. Water
coming through water softener tests high but not off the chart on my
test kit.,around 7.2 or just over.
Iris

Mickey wrote:
First of all I would not do a 100% water change it will kill the fish
most likely. If your well or tap water has a lower pH I would start
doing 10% water changes every few days to lower the pH.Have you
fertilized the lawn lately? Had any big rains which might have washed
fertilizer into the pond?

(Iris) wrote:
PH a whopping 9.4 & he said get fish out & change all water! Also
he said put in a cup
salt per 100 gallons We have a lot of plants & they look scorched on
edges. For the first time we have pea soup watr that won't clear with
Micro-lift. Micro lift is the only different thing we've added this
year.
Any ideas as to what we should do? Iris.

Subject: odd finding using organic waste removers

Jo Ann supplied the following observation and experiment she's been
running. Remember that this is a single incident AND it is in a tank.
This mean there could be unknown factors at work or
this may not apply to any other tank, water pH, condition, etc.

she super sterilized a tank in advance of moving fish into it. Unknown
to her, Steve had put a small amount of Microlift (an organic waste
remover) into this tank to see if it would help reduce the ammonia levels
of these fish when they started spawning. The stuff had been sent to them
to try out.
The first thing she noticed was that peroxide did not clear the purple
sterilizing level of PP in the tank.
She then dumped all water, changed media and cleaned the gravel. Steve
added a few more drops of Microlift to the tank (without telling Jo Ann).
This is classic example of a blinded study cause Jo Ann sure was in the
dark.
Jo Ann put in the fish. Soon she noticed the fish were lethargic and the
physical showed that the gills were liver colored purple. She immediately
checked the water parameters but the ammonia was not bad. She did a water
change anyway. Soon the fins were shredded and she moved the fish to fresh
water, did scrapes and found nothing. Some of the fish died, others
recovered after being moved to fresh water.

She dumped all the water in the tank again, left the media. She left the
tank for 2 weeks with no fish and then tested for ammonia which was now off
scale. She did another super PP treatment and once again the peroxide
wouldnt remove the PP. ONce again she dumped the tank, left the media.
The next day the ammonia was 0.1.

2 weeks later fish came in, put in the tank but didnt check ammonia in the
empty tank. 3 days later the fish were spawning and the ammonia was off
the charts. She did a 50% water. 3 days later the fins were shredding and
on the fish were on the bottom and lethargic. A scrape showed nothing,
gills were purple. The fish were moved out of the tank. Some of the fish
died, the rest have neural damage and probably wont survive.

She did 2- 100% water changes on the fishless tank, but the ammonia was
still off the wall 24hrs later. Did another 100% water change on the empty
tank, AND replaced the media completely and found ammonia at 0.1 later that
evening. Steve now told her he had added the Microlift.

Jo Ann is planning on adding some experimental fish to this tank in the
future to see just how residual the effect is going to be.

Note: The bacteria in the Microlift is purple bacteria. Some species of
purple bacteria reduce nitrates to ammonia. Also, purple bacteria eat H2S
and so are sold in an H2S formula to keep em alive. All additions of
Microlift were less than the recommended dose. Jo Ann has acidic water,
adds a calcium buffer to the water and salt. This was the only tank the
Microlift was added to, no other tanks of fish (with no Microlift) have
these symptoms.
Ingrid



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

Iris,
Crystal Clear PH Salts Down
A 9.6 oz bottle treats 10,000 gallons of water.Crystal Clear® pH Salts
Down from Winston Chemical safely lowers your pH level. This product
should be used with pH buffer. It's safe for fish and plants and a 9.6
oz. bottle treats 10,000 gallons of water.

You can order it wholesale to the public at
www.backyard-lifestyle.com

I hope this helps,
Norman


On Thu, 8 Jul 2004 18:35:06 -0500, (Iris) wrote:

I need some help! Pond is 5 years old.
Probably 1200 gallons.Light fish load. We have several of the original
fish & have
lost 2 or 3 over winters & 1 now & then.
But we've lost 3 in the last couple weeks.
My fav was dead today. Had water tested yesterday. They said everything
was good. Rather high PH,but not enough to klll fish. Today I had it
tested at another place. Same story. So I had water tested
at a 3rd fish store & Nitrates,Nitrites & amonia is good.Hardness is at
425. PH a whopping 9.4 & he said get fish out & change all water! Also
he said put in a cup
salt per 100 gallons We have a lot of plants & they look scorched on
edges. For the first time we have pea soup watr that won't clear with
Micro-lift. Micro lift is the only different thing we've added this
year.
Any ideas as to what we should do? Iris.