Need help with fish tank!!?

Question

I have a 30 gallon tank with fish in it. When we first set up the tank the levels tested at 6.8 and now for the last week they have tested at 7.6 and several fish have died. I put the stuff in there that is supposed to clear and clean up the chlorine and chloramine. But it does not seem to be working. On the bottle is says it starts working immediately. Ya right the levels are still the same. What can I do to correct the problem?

Answer 1

Just to clear thing up the stuff you are putting in for chlorine and chloramine has nothing to do with you pH. pH is telling you how acidic or basic your water is. The stuff you are adding to the water is to get the chlorine and chloramine out of the water not raise or lower pH. As far as why your fish are dieing i doubt it has to do with either your pH or the chlorine or chloramine in the water. I think you are confused so let me try to clear things up. Every new tank will go through what is know as the nitrogen cycle. What will happen is your fish produce waste (pee and poop) which is gonna add ammonia to the water. You need to have beneficial bacteria grow in your tank. This bacteria will then break down the wastes produced by your fish. Ammonia will in turn become nitrite's. Both nitrites and ammonia are very toxic to fish and will cause them to die. So until your tank spawns enough of this bacteria you need to break down their waste you will see you ammonia levels rise. So what i reccomend you doing is getting a master test kit that will have a test for pH amonia nitrite and nitrate. Here is a link that will explain this more in depth and give you a much better understanding of how it all works.
http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/bionitrogencycle/a/aa073199.htm
After you read this you should have a better idea of whats going on in your tank. Hope this helps and clears things up a bit.

Answer 2

The first line of "attack" is a partial water change. You may already know that changing the ph quickly will kill your fish. I suspect a build up of ammonia.

Test the water that is coming directly from the tap. See what the ph reading is. Ideally it should be around 7.

I have used a product called "ph down," with great success, if my partial water changes did not lower the ph. Again, all ph changes should done be VERY gradually. No more than a couple of tenths, in a 24 hour period; is my suggestion.

If your tap water is testing high, then you need to "age" the water before putting it in the tank. I do this over a 48 hour period, then add the water to the tank, after I have tested the ph.

Since so many people around the United States are experiencing very hot weather, I have noticed that more people are noticing changes in their water supplies.

I wish you the best of luck.

Answer 3

The product you are adding to the water is for conditioning tap water. The test you are doing is pH. The problem you are going to have will be ammonia. All different things,and just barely related to one another. Ya right, you've got a whole helluva lot to learn and you should do it quickly,before your fish start to die.
Here is a partial list of things you need to know.
What is pH.
What is ammonia.
How do you do a proper water change.
What does it mean to "cycle" an aquarium.
There are sooo many more things that you need to know,and quickly,that I don't hold much hope for your pets.
Good luck.

Answer 4

Do a 50% water change straight away. I'm assuming that is your PH levels, and not nitrate etc and the fish you have prefer a different alkaline/acid balance. Can you provide more information? How long has it been set up? What kind of fish and how long have they been in it? What do you feed? How much and how often etc

Answer 5

You can actually get rain water in the tank and that will lower the Ph level in your aquarium.