Low ph fish dying

cjqsmom

cjqsmom

Member
I got a case of ich so I set up a hosp tank on Sunday. 20 lbs of new live sand. 50% water my old tank 50 % new salt from fish store. on monday ph dropped to 7.7 so added buffer can not get above 8 tank looks cloudy lost 4 fish and a cleaner overnight.
what can I do for remainder of fish.
lost
blue hippo
powder brown tank
bi-color anger
cleaner shrimp
small tang with blue lips and spots cant think of name right now
still have 2 large horseshoe crabs
1 cleaner
decorater crab
1
big snail
2 big purple rose looking snails
and a handleful of nissish snails (little black snails)
lawnmower blenny
2 damsels
anommine
right now ph at 7.77 per the neptune meter
will do a test for other when I get home in a hour and a half from picking up kids
horseshoes are on there backs (swimming)
I was told I cant use cooper since I have the inverts
 
perfectdark

perfectdark

Active Member
Originally Posted by cjqsmom
http:///forum/post/2615485
I got a case of ich so I set up a hosp tank on Sunday. 20 lbs of new live sand. 50% water my old tank 50 % new salt from fish store. on monday ph dropped to 7.7 so added buffer can not get above 8 tank looks cloudy lost 4 fish and a cleaner overnight.
what can I do for remainder of fish.
lost
blue hippo
powder brown tank
bi-color anger
cleaner shrimp
small tang with blue lips and spots cant think of name right now
still have 2 large horseshoe crabs
1 cleaner
decorater crab
1
big snail
2 big purple rose looking snails
and a handleful of nissish snails (little black snails)
lawnmower blenny
2 damsels
anommine
right now ph at 7.77 per the neptune meter
will do a test for other when I get home in a hour and a half from picking up kids
horseshoes are on there backs (swimming)
I was told I cant use cooper since I have the inverts
Is everything in your hospital tank? inverts anemone too?
Your hospital tank if you are hypo'ing should only contain your fish, your inverts and corals are unaffected by ich and should remain in your DT. Every invert will be affected by the drop in salinity and will most likley die, as for your PH it should be brought up gradually and when you do your water changes for hypo the new SW should be buffered to the appropriate pH before adding it to your tank. I am a bit confused, more info I think would help, what size hospital tank is this? And what is the current salinity of it?
FYI the reason why you use a hospital tank for hypo is because nothing can tolerate that low of a salinity other than your fish.
 
cjqsmom

cjqsmom

Member
I made the mistake of buying someones 90 gallon tank that was up and running including fish. After the move I have had death after death so we took out all the rock in the display except for 3 pieces for the fish to hide in. Leaving some rock in the sump. Still having issues talked to alot of people regarding my nitrate levels they were off the charts as was told that since it looks like the previous ower had corals (alot of the rock was dead corals) that most likely they died in the tank and thats the reason for the nitrates to be so high. I even bought filter pads made to remove the nitrates. All my other test were normal with 0 amonia and nitrite didnt even register and ph 8.2
On sunday we decided to clear out the whole tank including sand and start fresh so what I had was a 20 gallons tank that the previous owner had used for a homemade sump. 2 days after purchase of the tank I bought a wet/dry and used the bio balls from the homemade unit. The sand looked chuncky so I thought it had crushed coral in it and have read that crushed coral traps the nitrates and thats the only thing that I was having a problem with until the ick.
I have not tried dropping the salt level but just to run the smalled tank as a reg tank with ick attack which is the only one I found to be safe with the inverts.
I am working on cleaning and then restarting the 90 gal tank but until then all I have is a 20 gal for the few fish I have left. Hubby told me to pull everything out of the tank and start a drip with the last 5 gallons of bought salt water go buy more then drain the 20 gallon tank and then after the drip to put them back in the tank since everyone will die if the ph stays the same and even with adding the buffer I am watching it go down every fow minutes.
Any help will be appricated as I havent had trouble like this before and we are running a 60 gallon reef without issues.
Celeste
 
perfectdark

perfectdark

Active Member
What is the salinity of the water? and how are you measuring it?
Im afraid in all this moving and cleaning it is quite possible that you might have started a mini cycle especially with removing the SB. FYI the only way to remove nitrates from your system is through water changes, but I think you have bigger issues. You 20 gal tank is pretty small for all the fish you have listed, stress from moving, small living quaters, water perameters fluctuating all add to your issues IMO.
 
cjqsmom

cjqsmom

Member
Already reclaberated the meter. I didnt remove the sand bed until after the fish were removed. I plan on starting up the 90 gal display and will have to cycle it before I return what little I have left. All the fish I had were small 2 to 3 inches each and I put in pvc tubes so they could hide. I just dont know why my ph dropped so bad in the first place. Still even with the new water its only at 7.95 what should I do next 1.230 on the hydro meter if I am reading it correct its in the green section on the second from bottom line
 
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