Plecostumus

[ezgoman]

Hello i set up my tank a few months ago a 55g with a few fish in it and a plecostumus and everything seems to be ok using city water except i cannot controll the ph it will not drop i used a whole bottle of ph down and it will not drop ive even went and bought a water softener for fish tanks and the hardness will not change ive ran it through the cycles 8 times with no effect to the hardness.The fish seem to be doing ok so far except the plecostumus which ive had 5 of them and they all died my question is would it be best to try to find an algae eater that likes higher ph or maybe think about buying 30 gallons of store bought water for the tank.I dont know what to do at this point so any info would be appreciated.thanks in advance

 

[JWright]

What is your pH?

I'd be shocked if it was the pH that was killing your plecos.

The important tests for community tanks aren't pH or hardness, they're ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. What are those levels at?

Messing with your pH will do more harm than good. I've kept a wide range of fish at my pH of 8.0. Fish can adapt to just about any pH, but messing with it (unless you know exactly what you're doing and have a good reason to do it), will only stress them out and lead to disease.

~JW

 

[ezgoman]

Thanks for the reply the nitrates are around 10 nitrites are 0 hardness is very hard alkalinity is 120 and ph is around 7.8 to 8 according to the 2 tests i have 1 is dip strips from jungle other is a kit that only reads from 6.0 to 7.6 so its a hardy guess however whenever i tested the water in the begainning it was the same color in both kits so i havent changed the ph even after using a whole bottle of ph down it still remains the same ph i was told this is due to hard water is this true?Also its not just plecostumus for some reason its beta all of them i have purchased have died also.Thanks

 

[exhumed07]

a ph of 8 would seem fine to me and hard water is also good for some fish cause it still has all the minerals in the water as it would in nature. the alkalinity I have no idea I would think that is high but I don't know

 

[JWright]

That's a fine pH/hardness. It's a little softer, and a little less alkaline than my water, and I'd never dream of messing with my pH for the majority of my tanks.

What are your ammonia and nitrite levels at?

 

[cchase85]

He mentioned nitrites are at 0.

I agree with what people above have said. Assuming your ammonia is at zero (which you didn't mention), there has to be something else going on. As long as pH levels are consistent it isn't terribly important for most fish what they are at (within reasonable levels).

 

[MissFishy]

All the messing around with your PH probably stressed out your fish to the point of killing them off. Do NOT mess with your PH. Your ph is fine and there is no need to add anything but water conditioner to your tank, which you should be doing already anyways.

The important tests for fish tanks are ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Those are the top three you should be worrrying about. If you don't have those tests, you should run out and get those strips. Leave your tank be for a few weeks and let it settle down. Run your ammonia/nitrite tests, then if you have your heart set on a new fish, add one fish at a time.

 

[JWright]

On the note of test strips. I would recommend picking up some drop-based test kits. I find the strips to be very fickle and inaccurate.

~JW

 

[ezgoman]

Thanks to all for the much needed info and learning lesson provided.I will follow the advice given and watch nitrites nitrates and amonia and stop messing with ph even if it cant be raised or dropped because the whole bottle did not raise or lower the ph which im glad now that i have the info given by you all.think if i had lowered the ph it may have killed all of the fish so im glad it didnt.Thank you for the help and i wish you all well.

 

[Rush07]

What are you feeding your Plec? I think sometimes the reason people struggle keeping these guys is that they think that they can live by grazing on algae. Often there is not enough in the tank to sustain them, especially if it is a newer tank. Algae Wafers and veggies should be added. Also, although it is not required for their survival, having driftwood in the tank for them to munch on will help keep them healthy. Two good resources:

PlecoFanatics.com - The Ultimate Loricariidae and Plecostomus Community
PlanetCatfish::Welcome!

Of course, if you do have high concentrations of Nitrate, Nitrite or Ammonia that needs to be addressed first. But if those are in line I would look at diet.