All My Fishes Dead

[Anthony]

just found out that my 2ft tank fishes all dead .. just managed to save my blood shrimps, corals, and lots of Nassarius Snails.

yesterday ask my dad help me buy "pai chu" white vinegar, but the bottle stated "Artificial Vinegar" arghhh i nv check... just pour in abt 1/5 of the bottle to dissolve my kalk.

*u guys mix ur kalk with which type of vinegar? am i using the correct vinegar?

usually i keep my ph around 8.1-8.4.

i started dripping in the noon... untill around 12am... i found out that my ph decrease to 7.43 its too late. how come!!!.

all my fishes dead becos of ph drop? or what causes it?...

anyway, i just finish clearing everythings... change 100% water... move all corals and snails to my new refugium. (my 4ft still havent finish cycle yet .)

[Dazza]

Wah from 8.4 to 7.43 drop in pH is frightening. I am surprised yr shrimps & corals survived.

[Dazza]

My condolences....... Yeah just leave them in yr refugium till teh 4 fter is ready lor.

[KingFish]

You did indeed used the right vinegar as artificial vinegar do not contain any other undesirable ingredients.

But are you aware that vinegar contains 5% acetic acid? Though it do not look concentrated, mixing 1/5 of the a bottle without meauring its pH isn't quite the wisest thing to do.

8.4 - 7.4 is a drastic change, it'll almost equate you breathing air laced with sulphur dioxide.

ATTENTION to all newbies: Please do understand what changes to the water chemistry you make with every additive ... more simply, know what you are doing.

The sensible thing to do now is perhaps to change 99% of your water.

Good Luck

[stonefish]

So sorry to hear tt......

[Anthony]

You did indeed used the right vinegar as artificial vinegar do not contain any other undesirable ingredients.

But are you aware that vinegar contains 5% acetic acid? Though it do not look concentrated, mixing 1/5 of the a bottle without meauring its pH isn't quite the wisest thing to do.

8.4 - 7.4 is a drastic change, it'll almost equate you breathing air laced with sulphur dioxide.

ATTENTION to all newbies: Please do understand what changes to the water chemistry you make with every additive ... more simply, know what you are doing.

The sensible thing to do now is perhaps to change 99% of your water.

Good Luck

mixing vinegar will affect so much drastic change???

err everytime i mix my kalk... my ph always hit around 12.0 - 12.4.

ohya i remember something,

yesterday i clear 10 months old live sand from my 2ft tank(old tank.). i just took out 1 of the shells and throw it into inside (2ft tank 2 months old)

just a shell, will contain that much toxic? ph drastic change to 7.4?

so sad ... now its empty...

[metals99]

poor thing ...

[Dispar_Anthias]

hey my condolence to you

[bawater]

why were you dosing kalk in the first place? did you test for low calcium levels?

From the pics, looks like regular water changes would be able to sustain levels since you didn't have much thirsty calcium suckers.

You were adding kalk with the wrong method in the first place to let your tank pH reach 12.

In such a small volume such as a 2ft, u need to drip...maybe 1 drop per 2-3sec(or even 1 drop per 5 sec,you will still push up pH by about 0.9) but never 5.0

If you meant the pH of the kalk water(the amount to be used) was pH 12 then yes it is correct , means its saturated.

You used the correct vinegar but....................

You also used the wrong portions of vinegar to kalk mixture.

roughly, 1 teaspoon of kalk mix to 15ml of vinegar- add 1 gal of freshwater...

Never pour in directly to your tank as your volume is too small. Drip this mixture too.

Start by mixing 1 teaspoon kalk to 5ml vinegar, then raise by 5ml till you reach 15ml over a few weeks. This will allow your tank to get used to the increase load.

The maximum vinegar needed is 30ml to totally dissolve 1 teaspoon of kalk.(u will still get bits of undissolve solids,just throw away...do not reuse)

You will also need to keep an eye on your DKH.

[pospeh]

PH works on a logarithemic scale.

A change of 1 actually means there has been a tenfold change in acidity/alkalinity.

[DeepBlue]

A great pity....hope you are able to salvage the rest.....

[Cookiemunster]

Sad to hear that bro but you really shouldn't mess around with vinegar unless you know the right amounts.

Drastic ph changes will kill corals and fishes. And as bawater mentioned, its not necessary to dose kalk even in your 2ft tank unless you keep clams or sps or you want more coralline algae. And even then, it has to be really slow cos of the small volume of water.

Well the good thing is its better this than your 4ft.

[Anthony]

ops..

i mean the pH of the kalk water(the amount to be used) was pH 12-12.4

KH around 10-11dKH

calcium around 380ppm

maintain my ph around 8.0-8.4 (24/7 aquasentry ph )

dose kalk twice weekly.

dose calcium once weekly.

You used the correct vinegar but....................

You also used the wrong portions of vinegar to kalk mixture.

roughly, 1 teaspoon of kalk mix to 15ml of vinegar- add 1 gal of freshwater...

Never pour in directly to your tank as your volume is too small. Drip this mixture too.

Start by mixing 1 teaspoon kalk to 5ml vinegar, then raise by 5ml till you reach 15ml over a few weeks. This will allow your tank to get used to the increase load.

The maximum vinegar needed is 30ml to totally dissolve 1 teaspoon of kalk.(u will still get bits of undissolve solids,just throw away...do not reuse)

normally i mix a chickenrichspoon of kalk with 2liters of aged water. (get around 12+ ph

yesterday i just did something different... ADD around 50ml of vinegar into that... and it cause a disaster

anyway for ur full detail...

[FuEl]

Hai...for your tank I think mix one teaspoon full of kalk to 4-5 liters of water enough already. No nid so concentrated. The less concentrated it is...the safer it is to use in your tank as the pH will not be so high.

[onghm]

Hi Anthony,

Sorry to hear about the loss of your fishes.

From what I've read, if you dose too much calcium acetate (which is what u get after mixing kalk with vinegar) for your tank to handle, you might end up with a bacteria bloom.

The bacteria bloom will use up a lot of O2.

Maybe that explains the ph drop.

Your tank will appear hazy too if there is a bacteria bloom.