why!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[greenman909]

i was able to control my ph finally but i woke up this morning and all my fish were dead... excluding my pleco(Trinidad) but my gold nugget pleco died as well... i had 6 chiclids and 2 plecos and now i have one pleco 9 inches and one chiclid 3 inches.. and the chiclid has a cotton like substance on his fin tips and his eyes my pleco only has that stuff on one of his eyes......what is going on

[JustOneMore20]

What did you use to "control the ph"?

[greenman909]

well i added a couple of plants i thaught that might help and the i used api adjuster and that did not work so i went the route of a ph buffer

[greenman909]

what really made me upset is that i lost my gold nugget and i do not want to loose my Trinidad ive had him forever

[JustOneMore20]

What is the pH of the tank without buffers and additives? You shouldn't mess with the pH. If you are trying to raise it, use crushed coral...and only if you pH is really low. Africans (and most fish for that matter) can adjust as long as the pH isn't extremely low.

[Damon]

Tank size and species would be helpful also. Filtration, temp, and ph,kg, would be good info also.

[greenman909]

i have a 55 gal tank and i have a top fin 6.0 dual filter and my tank is at a steady 80 deg...... my ph was a a 6.0 or lower my test would not read any lower and using the buffer i was able to raise it to 7.0.. i had 4 African chilids but now i have 1 and i now only have one trinidad

[emc7]

Did you test the nitrite & nitrate levels?

[greenman909]

yes the nitrates and nitrites were fine

[Damon]

You need to be more specific. African cichlid could be any number of fish, some which are messy and some which get larger. What exactly are your no2 and no3 readings? Have you had someone else test the water also? You could have a bad test kit.

[GoodMike]

here is just my two cents...assuming that your ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates were all ok, then you caused a ph swing. Adding buffers and chemicals to your tank for ph is a dangerous thing IMO, depending on the product, it will lower/raise your ph for the time being, but the ph will swing back to what it originally was because of the buffering capacity of your water, this is very stressful on your fish, and ive seen many dead fish result from this.
You need to have your water tested by a store to give you some more accurate readings, because if your test kit was telling you that your ph was 0, then there is no way i would trust any readings from it..cause that isnt possible. Have your tank water tested (ph, kg, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates tested), then have water straight from your tap tested (ph only), and water from the tap that has sat out over night tested (ph only). chances are that your ph is fine for the fish you want to keep, and you would have no reason to add all these chemicals and buffers to your tank. as suggested above adding a crushed coral would be a safer method to raise the ph in your tank.

Once we identify what happened, then we can discuss restocking your tank. there are/were several problems with the mix of fish you had, which would have probably led to the death of at least your gold nugget eventually, and maybe other fish.

[TheOldSalt]

You had a tank full pf big messy fish and a pH below 6. Then you raised that ph suddenly.
Any ammonium in the tank would have been fairly harmless, and with that fishload, you probably had quite a bit. Raising the pH made it not so harmless anymore, and that probably didn't do your fish any favors.

The white fuzzy secondary infection struck when the fish were in their weakened state. This can be very serious.

Change 1/3 of your water. 2 days later, do it again.

[Betta1]

I'm sorry to hear about your loss, even losing my guppies recently has been bothersome so I'm sure an entire african tank couldn't be great. If I had to guess it would be what everyone has mentioned, a faulty test kit and way to much buffer / ph swings.

I would suggest that when you restock that you do some research on each fish before you purchase it, my african endevore was easy enough as I found a local breeder ring and told them I was interested in a tanganyikan tank so they told me what was ok and what wasn't. Most if not all of your africans for sale in chain stores are going to be malawi, assorted cichlids are almost always this type.

Sorry to hear about the gold nugget, those are nice plecos with quite a price tag on them. Research and input is going to be your best tool to ensure this doesn't happen again.

[gemjunkie]

STOP ADDING CHEMICALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do what is suggested and change 1/3 of your water every day until it levels out and tests fine. Get some of those quick dip test strips, yes they are pricey but it's what you NEED right now to gain control of your tank.

DO NOT add any more fish until you fix this problem. ADDING CHEMICALS WILL NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM!!! Fish will do FAR better with stable conditions and good food wich is more than ANY chemical can provide!!!!