# Water Confusion



## RhomZilla (Feb 12, 2003)

Today was the first time I fed my P's feeders in a month. Came home, turned on lights, Ps were a bit dis-colored as usual. But after 10 min, one RBs and one Cariba were just chill'in on the bottom of the tank. Walked to the tank and placed my face in front and none of them moved or scattered, and even the 2 mentioned were just motionless even when I tapp the tank in front of them. Didn't think of it any (thought they were still asleep) and dropped in the feeders. Within half an hr, 3/4 of the feeders were dead.. untouched. Tested the water with one tester.. PH 6.0, ammonia .2, nitrate .1.. then tried another PH 7.5, ammonia .5, nitrate .4 :rock: Now i want to know who/what/why/where can i find or know how to find the right and coerrect readings from my tank besides these 2 kits before my shoal croaks?


----------



## Bigkrup444 (Oct 6, 2003)

Damn thats sucks i hope you get everything fixed. You have a sweetass shoal i wouldnt want to see anything happen to them.


----------



## RhomZilla (Feb 12, 2003)

Bigkrup444 said:


> Damn thats sucks i hope you get everything fixed. You have a sweetass shoal i wouldnt want to see anything happen to them.


 Thanks B(triple)4







Hope not too... i have more than a grand invested in my shoal. Sucks to have it just die without even knowing how.

Well anyone else????


----------



## fluidnyc (Oct 15, 2003)

I would do a big water change.
Then retest, or get a better testkit.
Good luck-


----------



## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

This sounds like a job for Super DonH


----------



## Lahot (May 20, 2003)

with the way they are acting and the dead feeders, I'd assume taht the 2nd set of #s are right and do at least a 50% water change.


----------



## BoomerSub (Jun 23, 2003)

I wouldn't do one huge water change, the sudden shift (even if it is for the better) may harm them. Instead, do daily 25% changes for a while (~a week, maybe?) until the ammonia has dropped to normal levels (IOW, undetectable).

-PK


----------



## DonH (Jan 25, 2003)

Unfortunately, test kits do go bad with time or exposure to heat. Since you are testing with two different kits and getting very different readings, the only way you will know which kit is accurate is to purchase a calibration solution. You can order it on online (www.aquaticeco.com sells one if I remember correctly). To calibrate pH, you have a solution with a known pH and you test it to see how far off your kit deviates from the true reading. The solution is basically used to calibrate digital pH pens but can be used with other test kits.

For ammonia, you can buy distilled water (which has no ammonia) and test to see if your test kit reads any level of ammonia. I would not rely on this to test pH though... Even though pure water has a pH of 7.0, processed water (whether it be from R/O or distillation) will have some minor contaminants that will affect pH.

What concerns me is that the feeders are dieing soon after you put them in the tank. This could mean 2 things:

1) The water conditions that the feeders where in were so bad that the abrupt move to better water conditions killed them due to shock.

2) The water condition in your tank has problems that your p's are used to, but the feeders are not.

To play it safe, I would increase the frequency of your water changes (by small volumes, of course...).


----------



## thePACK (Jan 3, 2003)

al give me a ring..i have some fresh test kits you can use...


----------

