A true testiment to the power of the water change.... and daily testing.

Phew.

I write this post as I wipe sweat off my forehead... no jokes.

I just got done watching avatar for the first time. Yeah, it was cool.

I come back into my room, thinking that the closest thing to that kinda scenery I can get - is my fishtank. So, I turn on my bedroom light, to take a look at my colorful fishies.

One of my clowns has strange sleeping habbits. He just lays pretty much on his belly and doesn't move an inch. It worried me at first, but I know for a fact that he is fine.

He was in this position, but wow, did he look pale. Next I noticed my pajama cardinal (who usually looks like he washes his pajama stripes in color enhancing detergent) laying there ABSOLUTELY BLEACH WHITE. He looked like he had been dead for hours. He was laying on the sand bed, barely breathing.

I did a quick nitrate test, which was 0, so my next suspicion was pH. Needless to say , it was 9.0++.

I ordered my parents around, having one take water out of the tank, the other grab distilled water from the garage, while I cranked out new salt water mix in the bathroom. (which along with myself, my desk, and my entire room, is covered in salt.)

Fortunately the water had been in the hot garage all day, and was pretty much the perfect temp.

Within 2 minutes of adding the new water, the cardinal and clown rose from the sandbed. Now, 10 minutes later, everyone is looking extremely colorful, and eating too.

Just wanted someone to read this and realize, that no matter how routine your tank maintenance has become, TESTING DAILY is a pretty good idea. Also - have water stocked up at ALL TIMES. If I had to drive to walmart to get new water, I have NO doubt that my cardinal would absolutely have been dead by the time I had it in the tank.

Don't be a fool like me. Test your water frequently.

 

phew, I'm glad everything turned out ok.
do you know what caused it? wouldn't want it to happen again.

 

His pH was 9.0, which was probably the cause of the mishap.

 

Well, there's likely to be a root cause of the pH spiking, despite the pH being the cause of the fish nearly dying.

 

Yeah I wonder what caused the pH to rise so high? Thank goodness everyone is ok!!

 

yeah that is what i meant as far as the "problem". I hope everything works out good.

 

Honestly.... a PH of 9.0 is darn near impossible to get to unless you overdosed ALK or Kalk. Even then... a overdose of alk or Kalk is not too bad depending on what the alk tests at. Corals are going to be affected much more than fish. (guessing)

My point is doing an immediate drastic water change over a test is not a grate idea by itself unless you know what the problem is and what is going on.

All my fish are pale at night when I wake them up with light. Takes a good ten minutes for them to snap out of it. I'm just saying perhaps the two are just coincidences in this case.

 

I understand your point, but I'm confident enough in my ability to judge between sleepy and slightly pale, and deathly white and barely living.

These fish were in trouble. Not sleepy.

I've had pH issues before. The thing is, I do very regular water changes, so the pH never goes too high. I believe my pH is being raised by a large amount of rock that I put into the tank when I first started. It was not LR, or from the LFS. I think that it's the culprit.

I'm going to do some research and slowly remove it and replace it with LR or base rock.

 

Was it a DIY rock? That stuff needs to be cured in water for a LONG time before it's safe and won't alter the pH on you.

 

So you do regular water changes... but this time your fish nearly died and you needed an additional large water change just to keep them alive??? Does not sound like your tank is ready for prime time. If your rock is new DIY rock... then it needs to be changed out or cured properly as blackraven pointed out. I'm just sayin... not trying to be rude.