Boy do I have problems!!!

[cvarcher]

Since I started this planted 15 gal tank my Ph has been stable at 6.0. I have flourite and volcanit substrate.My Carbonate hardness is a steady 4.I have alot of variety of plants and a pressurized CO2 and some of the plants pearl a little in the afternoon.But my fish seem sick with ich and dying.a few were observed at the surface(gasping for air?)The Harlequin rasboras all died and all the cardinal tetras too. I also lost 2 rummy nose .Yet the otos are fine ,the cory cat and the pristellas are fine,along with the other rummynose.I couldnt control the rate of diffused bubbles thru the fritted stone as it clogs over time slowing the bubbling.At that point with the CO2 off during the nite and no bubbling in the morning I wanted to see the Ph.It read out at 7.2! OK Seems to make sense;no CO2.I then punch a hole in the frit and start up the flow to one bubble every 3 seconds.This in turn is swept into the intake of the Whisper filter.I checked thruout the day and the Ph is holding at 7.4! According to the charts I should only have about 5ppm CO2 yet the plants are still mildly pearling and the neon diamond head tetras are dying.Temperature is steady at 77deg.Plants look great.Oh and to add confusion I have a CO2 indicator(azoo) and its blue which indicates too high CO2.But when I tested it on tap water and boiled water it also read blue!!!Whats going on???:sad:

[lanstar]

I would guess 2 issues... I'll probably get yelled at for the first one.

1. Wild pH swings. (To me, 6 to 7.4 in a short time is a wild swing.)

2. Way too much CO2.

You are, in my opinion, in desperate need of an accurate CO2 test kit.

marine-monsters.com (yeah, I know) has/had the Lamotte CO2 test on sale for $15.00. This is a very high quality and reliable test.

See "Pressuirzed System Report..." in the "Equipment" forum for why this may be your problem.

I could be all wet... In fact I am. I just finished a water change.

Good luck!

Tim

[Buck]

I would say were very high on the CO2 end as well and that it was suffocating the fish and causing all your ich problems...
To bring your PH down from 7.4 to 6.0 with that soft of water is a heck of a lot of CO2 !!


(quote)
degrees KH
2 3 4 5 6
+------------------------
6.6 | 15 23 30 38 46
6.7 | 12 18 24 30 36
6.8 | 9 14 19 24 28
pH 6.9 | 7 12 15 19 23

For a typical planted aquarium,
pH=6.9, KH=4 and CO2=15 ppm is just about ideal.
(quote)

That is if you believe all this...lots of debates could be started... its not a bad * guideline * though...
I have tested out my water and this chart is pretty close in my case...

[cvarcher]

First off that darn azoo CO2 indicator confused me to think that the blue color was too high and the yellow was too low in CO2 .Its just the opposite!! So that explained the 7.4 Ph and yes it was a radical Ph swing because the dumb stone frit to diffuse the gas slowly clogs in time.Now I have the bubble go directly into the intake of the whisper filter and I can count the bubbles and compare the CO2 concentration accurately.What fish I have left are already improving,but the ones that had sevre ich passed on.And the plants are all pearling beautifully including my cabomba,rotala magenta ,indica and pearlgrass and riccia.I will wait alittle for everything to stabilize again before I add fish again.