Silver Aro issues with water quality PH. Opinions please.

[fishysmell]

Silver Aro issues with water quality PH. Opinions please.
Had a 6 to 7 inch aro, had him since about 3.5". Unfortunately he jumped. I now fixed the gap and tried again. Had him in
the tank described below with no visible health issues "very hardy".
I got a much smaller Aro 2-3" and put him in the same tank "30Gal" temporary tank. Very clean water with two filters and
25% water changes per day. Little Aro only lasted 24 hours. I checked my water params and everything looked good with
the exception of PH 8.2. Talked with the LFS and he suggested to lower the PH and or try doing a 4hour drip to acclimate.
So I put in 6 gallons of RO water into the tank. "I did not recheck the PH" I assumed by doing the drip the Aro would
acclimate to the Higher PH. I got another little Aro around 3.5" and did a 6 hour drip to acclimate him. Again I lost him in
about 24 hours. Other tank mates are two Clown Loaches and 1 TSN. Loaches are 3/4" TSN is about 3" and they are doing
fine.
So now I assume I need a RO unit to lower the PH in my "WELL WATER"?
My questions are this. Do you think the PH is what is doing this?
If it is the PH and I do get an RO filter how do I regulate the PH so that it does not go to low?
If you use RO how do you regulate your water params???
Looking at getting a whole house RO system and tapping off of it for Aquarium use as well as daily use etc.
I have a 210 that I am prepping for my show tank, this is the reason I have the small 30g tank running. I wanted to grow a few
smaller fish out before putting them in the bigger tank.


Thanks for any help.

 

[brianjh]

its hard to tell without testing the water, after adding the RO water....test the water again. If you are having issues with 3 aros so far, i would stop buying aros until you find out what the issue is. What kind of filtration are you using? temp? other water parameters? also 25% a day IMHO is too much. I would cut back to either 40% weekly of 25% every 3-4 days. YOu have to test your water on a regular basis, at least a few times a week. once you get to "know" your tanks and how they handle the bio load, you will see differences in water parameters. Thsi will tell you when / how often you need to change the water.

 

[brianjh]

I also wouldnt be suprised if the TSN has something to do with it. Aros at that age are very fragile and delicate. you might consider getting a 7-8 inch...they are much easier to keep at that size.

 

[badfish]

I think you are beter off getting a silver about 10'' and adding some bog log this will lower your ph and a larger silver is a beter bet. also a tsn is a bad mix with cl and small aros , i think you should think about re homing the tsn good luck. You may want to look at your KH if that is high you may have difficulty lowering the ph naturally .

 

[lkp00]

aro's that small are very delicate sometimes need to get 3 or 4 for one to live. 25% water change each day is a bit much water temp/ph etc is probably all over the place because of this. Have you check ammonia, nitrites etc? How established is this tank?

 

[aeri]

aside from tankmates probably stressing the baby arowana, you are doing way too many water changes. this may also contribute to your high ph.

at the same time, make sure when you introduce the arowana, use the drip acclimatation method your lfs recommended. the lfs's ph compared to 8.2 is most likely a large difference, so the drip method is required. depending on how much water it may take up to an hour, make sure to put an air stone in the bucket the aro is in.