They won't stop dying!!

If it isn't to late, and you're desperately looking for some advice, hopefully someone can help you out.

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Barbie
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Post by Barbie »

Potassium is an element that can be a limiting factor in plant growth. There are definitely test kits for it. While I didn't specifically know that KCl is potentially harmful, I always recommend not using water that's gone through a water softener in the first place, no matter which softening "salt" you're using. Zebras do just fine in high pH water. You'll have to keep in mind that ammonia is MUCH more toxic at higher ph is all.

People have recommended a few times a mix of RO water and some of your tap water for stability. It works well, keeps the water from being so hard the pH stays high and causes potential problems, but also keeps the buffering capacity high enough the pH won't fall. A RO unit is not a big expense, IMO, and they take up a little space under a cabinet. You can just run it for a day before changes and then top up a pretreatment barrel with tap and pump it into tanks.

I'm pretty sure Tom's point was that for the cost of one of those dead zebras you could have saved yourself all this heartache by buying an RO. We all have differing levels of compromise that must be reached with our spouses about our hobby. You aren't alone in that. Just find something he likes to do and blackmail him about it, like the rest of us ;). I actually just do my best to make sure my hubby is happy enough that it doesn't pay for him to make me unhappy.

Bottom line is that your fish will be fine in your tap water. They tolerate the 7.8 pH here well enough to spawn in it. Now you know not to use water that's been through a water softener, and hopefully your problems will be over. Good luck!

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wandj
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Post by wandj »

Yes. Hard lessone learned. Ironic how I thought it was good for them.

I looked at my pH meter that I've had in the "cull" tank. Remember it started at 8.7 and went down to 7.91? I just checked it now and it is 8.6....back where it started. So yah, stuff like that is no good to play with when the kH is high. The fish in that tank are fine anyway, but I'm sick of playing with water. And I don't know if I can trust getting a proper mix all the time using RO. I'd have to drill a hole in my floor and run a hose. Not hard...I wouldn't mind. But now I'm scared! Scared of differing water. At least I know my tap water has not caused any problems and I can "trust" it. I have never had an issue with pH during water changes....like that 80% one I had to do during another event.
And it really is a lot less worry, work, time and effort just using tap.


Cheers everybody and here's hoping another fish does not have to die an untimely death due to issues like this. And it's not like I didn't try to find out.
wandj
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Post by wandj »

Oh yah, like I said, I would set up a barrel etc in my house for RO mixing, but I don't want to get shot.

Ok, he won't shoot me, but I can promise it would cause a little tiff if I set up a barrel/tank, etc. There is no room to put it anywhere.

And my water lines are plumbed right in from my hot and cold water lines. I have a shower knob as my mixing valve so the water going in the tanks is a good temp. Maybe I can look into tying an RO unit to the water line instead of how it's set up now. And I can hide it in the furnace room....he never goes in there.

I will do some research...but right now I need a break from all this. I am having nightmares of fish.
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Post by McEve »

wandj wrote: And I notice that some of the Zebras will sometimes wave their fins constantly....is this normal?
Mine do this. Especially when they're in their caves, so this is normal behaviour.

I'm sorry to hear that you need to get into fights over your Zebras. Maybe he's jealous becuase you spend time catering to them :P There's a thread somewhere on how to handle your spouse, maybe you can get some tips there!

Good luck with the rest of your gang wandj!
wandj
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Post by wandj »

Hi all.

I just talked to a fish friend of mine....very knowledgeable. Older guy that doesn't have email, so I called him up and drove 10 hours to see him. ( I was picking up some fish, so I asked him about the KCl thing when I was there)

I told him what happened. He says he uses K all the time. He suspects it is the "cleaning agents" in the KCl. He suspects it strips off their slime coat. And it kills my bio bacteria.

Well, he may be right if he uses KCl all the time...he said he does not use the KCl pellets in a water softeners. I saw what he uses in a plastic jar...it looks like aqaurium salt, but it's K instead. ( I think he buys it bulk, and he said it was quite expensive)

Sigh
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