Quick Help, Please!

[CJO]

I purchased a 65 gal aquarium just before Christmas from someone moving out of the area. He has had it stable for the past year and a half and had it professionally maintained by someone at the local fish store. At lunch today I met the person who maintained it so that I could make sure that I was maintaining it correctly and to get some pointers on upkeep. When I arrived home this evening, I went to feed the fish (7-year-old ocellaris clown and 1-year-old neon dottyback) and found the clown floating at the top, barely moving, and the neon dottyback was nowhere to be seen. A quick test of the levels showed that the pH had dropped from 8.4 to 6.5!

He had adjusted the calcium reactor when he was here and I'm guessing that he did it incorrectly. I have added some pH up that I had on hand as well as changing out the only 2.5 gallons of salt water that I had premixed. The pH is now up to 7.0.

I'm wondering two things- how can I raise the pH any more (I don't have any more pH up) and how quickly can I raise it without killing the fish and inverts?

CJ

[sedor]

Do you have an airstone and pump you can run on the tank for the time being? You can also use baked baking soda. I would drip a solution into the tank slowly as you would kalkwasser, although the ph should raise on its own eventually.

[Playa-1]

Try opening a window. Is there a protein skimmer on your tank?

[CJO]

Dang server issues....

I don't have an airstone, but I have several pumps and a protein skimmer located in a sump.

CJ

[CJO]

I think opening a window may do more harm than good. The temp outside is around 20oF

CJ

[sedor]

Is there a window in the room? If the tank has a canopy open it up, open the window and let the fresh air flow in and you should be back in no time. How are the fish doing?

[CJO]

Fish aren't doing so well. OK- I'll take off the top and open the windows and see how it does.

Thanks,
CJ

[CJO]

Wow, it's up to 7.15 now. I guess that makes since because the pH was lowered due to CO2. Do I have to worry about raising the pH too quickly?

Thanks,
CJ

[Chiefsurfer]

I think the point is more o2. Not sure why your ph would drop so fast, but I don't think you have to worry about it going up too fast.

Someone explained it in terms of human survival(although that was in reference to tank temperature I think). If you are locked in a steel cage in the center of a big room(point being you can't just run and get fresh air) and the room is sealed. You have no oxygen in the room, and can't breathe. Would you want someone to open the window 1/32 of an inch every 10 minutes, or swing the window wide open?

Yes it might not be great raising it too fast, but probably better to deal with adjustment issues, than no oxygen in the water.

[CJO]

Thanks everyone for your help. The pH is now at 7.6. The water temp is starting to go down (it's now at 72), so I'm going to close the windows, but will still keep the fan going, the cover off, and the skimmer bubbles on full blast. I'll let you know how it looks in the morning.

CJ

[sedor]

As long as the ph is rising naturally it won't be to fast. Keep in mind with your lights off, the ph will probably stay around 7.8 - 8 all night. When the lights have been on a while its normal to be in the 8.2 - 8.4 range, but its perfectly acceptable to be a little lower than that even.

[CJO]

Great- thank you very much!

CJ

[CJO]

I woke up this morning and the pH was back at 8.4 The clown was still alive and doing much better, but he still didn't seem quite right. I'm hoping it's because he had just woken up. I also caught a quick glimpse of the neon dottyback.

I'm going to assess the condition some more when I go home for lunch. The lights will have been on for some time then and I can try a small feeding.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

CJ

[Sk8r]

Suggest you take over maintenance yourself: you are paying this person? Save the money and do your own. I tried the 'easy' route and found exactly the same problem.

Get 4 tests: a refractometer, alk, cal, and magnesium. Post your parameters and get advice from RC when you're about to do something 'new' or when you have a problem, and good luck to you. You did better than the tank maintenance guy.

[CJO]

I have been doing the maintenance myself and had planned to continue. Since he has been maintaining it for a year, I asked him to come over and make sure that I had set everything up correctly. In particular, I wasn't very familiar with a calcium reactor and asked him if I had it adjusted correctly. I'm guessing that was when things went wrong.

In his partial defense, the bubble counter had a leak in it and all of the fluid had drained out. There was a second one, but it's fluid was a bit low too. I emailed Milwaukee last night to enquire where I could purchase a new bubble counter. I received an email this morning from them, asking for my address and they've already put one in the mail... for free! That is some excellent customer service.

The first purchase I made, before even getting the tank, was a Red Sea test kit for pH, Alkalinity, Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates. My brother hooked me up with some test kits for Calcium and Phosporous (he used to have a reef tank until his power went out for a couple of days). I've supplimented that with a Pinpoint pH probe, which earned its keep last night, and have a nice refractometer on order. Looks like I should also get a magnesium test kit. I've also thought about getting a pH controller to connect to the CO2 regulator so that it will shut off automatically should anything like this happen again.

Going from memory, my recent levels are-
pH- 8.4
Alk- high (don't think it gave a number)
NH4- 0 ppm
NO2- 0.05 ppm
NO3- 20 ppm (down from 100 a week ago)
Ca- 450 ppm
Phos- 0 ppm

He also suggested that I exchange the sand bed for some new live sand to get and keep the NO3 levels down.

The tech returned my phone call a little while ago. While he didn't assume full responsibility for causing the pH drop, he did ask how it was going and said that he could drop bye (for free) next Tuesday when he was in the are.

CJ

[Chiefsurfer]

Well glad we could all help. If the o2 was VERY low in the water, he could be pretty stressed which could cause him to look a little off.

When you transported the tank, did you remove the sand and put it back in? This could have cause a LOT of those nitrates to act up. I would not suggest new sand, seems silly to me.

[CJO]

Good news- went home at lunch today and just about everything looked fine. The only apparent casualty was a small hermit crab. The neon dottyback and clownfish were both swimming around and both ate some brine shrimp (I didn't give them much).

I left the sand in the aquarium when I transported it, but I had to put it on its side due to the piping for the sump, so much of the sand was disturbed. There was quite a bit of detrius when I added water. He also said that the sand that I had tended to pack down, resulting in anaerobic areas that could cause some issues if they were disturbed during cleaning.

CJ