Question on PH levels

[kvizena]

I screwed up big time last night. I have been taking a whole lot of time setting up my new 80 gallon sw setup. I have been very patient with testing all of the normal levels, except one. I bought a couple of really hyper Undualated Triggers and woke up this morning with them stiff and floating. I tested ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, calcium and salinity before putting them in the tank. Being dumbfounded this morning I looked at the one thing that I missed.....PH level. The PH read between 7.9 and 8.0, which I am going to place blame on killing my two fish very quickly. I have read on various boards I should keep the PH between 82 and 8.5 and I know the way to make this happen, however I am wondering if I am accurate in my theory of PH killing my fish. I know ultimately I am to blame for killing them, however I want to make sure to look at all possibilities before saying ahah!

Nitrite - Almost 0
Nitrate - Almost 0
Ammonia - Almost 0
Salinity - 1.023
Temp - 80
PH - 7.9 to 8.0 :?

 

[Kevin1000]

I doubt the PH had anything to do with the death of your fish.

PH has a normal daily fluctuation which can run as low as 7.9 first thing in the AM and as high as 8.6 when you turn the lights off.

Rapid changes in PH can place stress on fish but the typical slow change that most tanks go through during the day does not.

Hope this helps.

 

[Johnsteph10]

Did you slowly acclimate the new fish? If you just plunge them in or acclimate only a few minutes it is QUITE a shock. Your pH is no big deal and the other parameters look good. What you have to consider is where they came from -- the dealers water may be great or it may be crap, with the money being on having crappy water.

Ok, so you take these fish from crappy water and put them into good water. Well, you'd think that the fish would be happy and stress-free, but not so...

They've adapted to the mud puddle that may be the LFS water! So, you'd have to acclimate them to your good water. Doesn't make a whole lotta sense until you think about it in this kinda light..

Don't forget to QT fish as well.

Thank you for listening to all the voices in my head...

John

 

[Anonymous]

PLEASE don't replace with two more undulated triggers! These fish get big, and they get MEAN (like you ain't never seen a fish get mean!)!!!

In my opinion even a single undulatus would be inappropriate in an 80, and it very likely will end up being the only fish you can keep in that system. Reconsider.

As for the pH, I have to agree with the others. Acclimation is an issue, but your pH range is not. When in doubt, doubt the test kit - what brand/reagents/age? (For instance, if you picked it up at the LFS, did it have a bunch of dust on it? Are the reagents date stamped?)

 

[Anonymous]

SM's right, those are some MEAN fish. We hate wholesaling them as they're to mean for any other inhabitants. 1 fish a tank. Fricken things bite me all the time. Wait, I got 2 in stock, they are all yours

 

[Anonymous]

Not me! <sm backs away from undulatus>

 

[kvizena]

I let them sit in the bag for about 45 minutes and added water from my tank twice about 30 minutes into the process. Besides that the only thing I can think of is I completed the plumbing project with 3/4 inch piping. However when I was done I rinsed off the finished pipe before putting it in the tank.

 

[kvizena]

Now that I have thought about it more and more. When I bought the Triggers were in the back part of the store, where the temp had to be at least 90 degrees. I also remember walking to where they have all of their skimmers and thinking I can not believe they do not have working AC or at least chillers on the main feed to the store. If the water temp was 80 to 84 degrees at the store the fish may have freaked when introduced to my tank which is always at 75 degrees. Maybe I didn't let them sit long enough before dropping them into my liquid paradise.

 

[Baianotang]

Thats what I call a mistery death.
The temp normally dosent kill fish.
Triggers are very hardy hummm how old is your tank.

 

[kvizena]

This tank has been up and online for about 2 1/2 months, give or take a week. I have intentionally not stocked it with anything except 10 crabs and a blue damsel (three years old) so the tank could cycle. I have always erred on the side of caution, but I am an engineer by trade so it bothers me not having a successful root cause analysis.

One thing to add is that my blue damsel died three weeks ago out of the blue after making changes to the piping underneath my tank. I have redone all of the piping and installed some commercial quality ball valves that are also unions. I have four of those which aid me greatly when breaking everything down for cleaning. No water everywhere! When Ted, the Damsel died I simply thought the changes I made with the pvc might have introduced toxins into the tank. So I did water changes as needed and the skimmer I have cleaned the water to its "normal" perfect state. I continued UV sterilizing and skimming for about two weeks and got kind of lonely, so I went and bought two triggers. They died within 12 hours of placing them into my tank.

So at this point I apparently have a rectangle of death in my entry way held in place by glass walls. So, where to go at this point......I think I am going to take several water samples from my tank and freeze them for testing. I am going to take water samples from the tap water (yes, I know, I know, I know) and test the tap water as well. I am wondering if the MUD district changed something in the way of additives to the water-supply since the water always tests as good as necessary in the past. In the process of waiting for test results to come back I am going to go buy a RODI since my old one broke two years ago and I never replaced it. I am then going to remove 5 gallons of tank water a day for two weeks until all of the water in the tank is new (1/2 life new at least)

Any ideas or things I might try beyond what I am contemplating? Any ideas are greatly appreciated in advance.

Thanks for all of your help