Mystery of dying goldfish and other questions

[Dave 54]

You need to treat the pond to raise the Ph ASAP 5 is not good for them add 50ml as I told you yesterday until the level is about 7-7.5 they will take up to 8.5 but at 5 your water is becoming increasingly acidic to your fish.
Speed is of the essence when it comes to treating them the sooner the level goes up the better otherwise more will succumb.
A good tip is to keep a spare pot of baking soda for yourr fish fish exclusively for emergancys such as the one you have at the moment.

rgrds

Dave

 

[Dave 54]

I just did it. Put in 45ml of baking soda in the pond (out there with flash light and all). After 10 minutes I tried the strip test and the Ph seems pretty high, I guest the baking soda is not yet mixed in quite good yet. Tomorrow with the new and better Ph test kit I'm hoping to get a better reading on it.

How can it be prety high if its at Ph 5 as thats moving downwards ?
Ph10 is what I call high and thats no good for them either......

rgrds

Dave

 

[HTH]

Some decades old general rules of thumb about buying fish:

• Never buy fish from a tank where there are sick or dead fish.
• When you do buy fish quarantine them for at least 3 weeks.

I know a lot of people setup a new pond and add fish that have not been through quarantine. I understand this. But doing so with feeder fish breaks both of the rules.

With feeder fish you are inoculating your pond with everything the sorry little fish happen to be carrying? Have you been in a pet store when they net the dead ones from the feeder tank each morning? Why risk infesting you pond with all sort of problems.

 

[Nepen]

How can it be prety high if its at Ph 5 as thats moving downwards ?
Ph10 is what I call high and thats no good for them either......

rgrds

Dave

It's the strip color code one so I can't say how much it was really, I'll have a better one later in the afternoon and will check it again then.

But wasn't I try to raise the Ph level? From 5 to higher should be correct, no?

Thanks for all your suggestions and all the chart you gave me were informative and helpful

 

[Dave 54]

yes you where by adding baking powder at 50 ml per 100 gallons but check the levels at the same time.
If say after 150 ml the Ph goes up to 7-7.5 then stop but remember its only a quick fix you'll have to still correct whats going wrong.
Keep me posted .....

rgrds

Dave

 

[Nepen]

ph I keep at 9 for koi but goldfish any where from 7 up .I use crushed oyster shells in my filters to keep my ph stable and I get it at tractor supply and activated charcoal in my filters and use dollar store laundry bags to put it in



I rebuilt my water fall tank to hold more plants this past spring.I had the round tank and changed it to oval so I could put more plants in it to help clean the water

Hi Sissy,
The oyster shell I found online are the ones they feed to chickens/birds, is that the same? Do I need a lot of it? Right now in my filter I have bio balls (small bag), Bio rings (small bag), carbon (small bag), and lava rocks (I have the most of this). I dont think my waterfall filter is very affective though. My husband drilled the whole too high and the water basicly float through all the filters. May be I should get a new one and just have the water come from the top? or would it be better come from the bottom?

 

[Nepen]

Yes I did indeed say baking soda at 5ml per 50 gallons US not our UK imperial messure , you should see a change within a few hours but remember this is a quick fix operation to stablize the pond giving you time to act and sort everything out.
At risk of aving a discussion about PH pills again you could use Plaster of Paris .
Get one of those microwavable pudding bowls add plaster of Paris to the bowls and add just enough water to start them off leave them for 48 hours to set solid then gently drop them in the pond where they will slowly disolve and use up the PH


rgrds



Dave

yes you where by adding baking powder at 50 ml per 100 gallons but check the levels at the same time.
If say after 150 ml the Ph goes up to 7-7.5 then stop but remember its only a quick fix you'll have to still correct whats going wrong.
Keep me posted .....

rgrds

Dave

Hi Dave,
Would you please clarify if it's 5ml per 50 gallons or 50 ml per 100 gallons? If it's 5ml per 50 then it should be 10ml per 100 gallons?

Thanks a ton!!
-A

 

[Nepen]

Some decades old general rules of thumb about buying fish:

• Never buy fish from a tank where there are sick or dead fish.
• When you do buy fish quarantine them for at least 3 weeks.

I know a lot of people setup a new pond and add fish that have not been through quarantine. I understand this. But doing so with feeder fish breaks both of the rules.

With feeder fish you are inoculating your pond with everything the sorry little fish happen to be carrying? Have you been in a pet store when they net the dead ones from the feeder tank each morning? Why risk infesting you pond with all sort of problems.

Thanks for the tip. I will prbably not going to buy anymore fish for a long time since I'm already overstock! I will have to try to find a petstore that's not a chain store around here... dont know if there is one.

 

[capewind]

I got a panic'd phone call yesterday from a ponder (hubby wasnt available) ... what they thought was the issue really wasnt (exhausted female/spawn) but since I was there, tested their water with our kit (they use the strips) ... Issue #1 their strips were WRONG. He tested again with the strips while I was there, and he was doing it "right" ... His test strips only tested PH (wrong), Ammonia (wrong), nitrite, and GH ... #2 KH (my liquid test) was only 3 drops. Sent him right to the store for baking soda for an immediate "patch". Ironically, they use oyster shells too, but didnt understand the WHY he does, and went to get more too ... My "general knowldge" is strong, but I do have some huge gaps. It was BECAUSE of the group members here, that I was able to handle the situation yesterday on my own, without hubby. Just be patient with the questions and instructions. The group members will help you get things on the right path, and the knowledge you need for the future.

 

[HARO]

. I cant do that large water change more than every two weeks or my husband will kill me, would that help?


.

At least you wouldn't have to worry about the fish any more! :wink:
John

 

[topofthehill1]

I only skimmed this. but although I never had a pond there I am from NC. I hope someone else will chime in but I doubt guppies will make it through the winter there. Particularly the ones with the long tails. I suspect they will have a hard time getting food after your goldfish get a little bigger. I really don't think mollies will survive the winter there either.

I would probably have a petstore test the water for you. Most are very happy too. Dont use the test strips they are not accurate. Use the bottle dropper test. If you are in the triangle area I noticed the ph use to run pretty low out of the tap.

Everybody always gets too many fish to start with. Its hard to maintain the stocking levels you see in the tanks in the stores. If the fish are very small your pond can probably handle that amount for the time being. If you posted a picture of pond and fish most people here could quickly tell you. The problem is goldfish grow pretty quickly.

 

[Nepen]

Hi topofthehill,
Yes I'm in the triangle, never thought about the Ph in the water being low before since I drink tap water, thought should be fine for the fish too...ehh.. wrong.

Anyway, I dont expect the guppies and mollies to survive the winter out there in the pond. the fist group of guppies I put in there when the water was just a little colder (we had a weird weather pattern this year, hot, cold, hot cole...) than now (now is around 72-73) died pretty quickly and the ones I put in later when the water got a little warmer, all were fine.

I intend to buy a little aquariam to put inside so I can bring my guppies and mollies in for winter. Or give them away (but my son loves them). They are very cute grouping together and play in the waterfall.

I looked at my goldfish yesterday and realized some of them are now around 2.5-3 inches... only 2 weeks ago they were all so tiny
-A

 

[Nepen]

I got a panic'd phone call yesterday from a ponder (hubby wasnt available) ... what they thought was the issue really wasnt (exhausted female/spawn) but since I was there, tested their water with our kit (they use the strips) ... Issue #1 their strips were WRONG. He tested again with the strips while I was there, and he was doing it "right" ... His test strips only tested PH (wrong), Ammonia (wrong), nitrite, and GH ... #2 KH (my liquid test) was only 3 drops. Sent him right to the store for baking soda for an immediate "patch". Ironically, they use oyster shells too, but didnt understand the WHY he does, and went to get more too ... My "general knowldge" is strong, but I do have some huge gaps. It was BECAUSE of the group members here, that I was able to handle the situation yesterday on my own, without hubby. Just be patient with the questions and instructions. The group members will help you get things on the right path, and the knowledge you need for the future.

Yea, I think my strip test is garbage.. the colors are weird and I don’t think I'll get an accurate reading from it. I'll invest in a better test.

Reading the forum gave me a lot of tips already. I had guppies growing up and never did anything to them so I thought I could handle this... oh well!!

I even had a salt water fish tank for half a year (I'm from Thailand, quite easy to buy salt water fish there, but that's before I developed an environmental conscious!!) but I wasnt responsible for testing anything but buying fish, cleaning and feeding so no knowledge stem from that experience :grumble:
-A

 

[Nepen]

So I got the API Ph test today and did the test. I think my water is between 7.5 to 8. The thing is though, I tried our tap water too and it's at around 8-8.5...since topofthehill said NC water usually has low Ph I think I might have a dud test so I tested with vinegar (water change to yello) then add baking soda in and the color changed back to greenish blue. I also test the rain water (it rained again today) and it's about 6.5-7. Now I'm not sure if I have the good test or not. I think i do but looking at the chart Dave posted, its not really match...Huh.....
-A

 

[gardengimp]

Water from the tap (well or city water) usually needs to be exposed to air for a while before you get an accurate pH result.

Rain Water:

The pH of rain varies, especially due to its origin. On America's East Coast, rain that is derived from the Atlantic Ocean typically has a pH of 5.0-5.6; rain that comes across the continental from the west has a pH of 3.8-4.8; and local thunderstorms can have a pH as low as 2.0.[72] Rain becomes acidic primarily due to the presence of two strong acids, sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and nitric acid (HNO3). Sulfuric acid is derived from natural sources such as volcanoes, and wetlands (sulfate reducing bacteria); and anthropogenic sources such as the combustion of fossil fuels, and mining where H2S is present. Nitric acid is produced by natural sources such as lightning, soil bacteria, and natural fires; while also produced anthropogenically by the combustion of fossil fuels and from power plants. In the past 20 years the concentrations of nitric and sulfuric acid has decreased in presence of rainwater, which may be due to the significant increase in ammonium (most likely as ammonia from livestock production), which acts as a buffer in acid rain and raising the pH.[73]