Never ever get too comfortable!

[Tahoe61]

If pH was the culprit your fish would have died long ago in the shipping process where pH values swing wildly and quickly. It may have been an additional stress but not the demise of your fish.

Blaming pH is an easy out, but not the cause. A Tang shipped 1st from the Pacific and then to a distributor goes through extreme pH changes and makes it to your tank alive.

 

[Damon]

Hmm.. Sorry about the loss.. But one thing, and it's just my little experience. I stay away from buffers.. It always seemed to be the kiss of death and caused more harm than good.. I'm not sure whether it was the buffer in both your and my cases, but it always seemed like once I added it, something always, always died.

In my experience, it is always better to have a lower, but stable ph. But, I'm heavy on aeration and water flow in the display to hopefully minimize both low ph and also oxygen deprivation. Besides,a ton of flow, fish, along with coral(as long as your not beating them directly to death with it) love it..

You also may want to look into your salt mix, along with, as others said, different tests. That is an extremely low ph level and honestly, I kinda question either the test, or your salts inherent buffering capabilities. Or, something is up as far as maybe co2 holding in your tank water.. Simple way to test, is to run a fan on the surface of the water and open your Windows. If the ph goes up, holding co2 and it needs more fresh air. You can also, in your fuge, throw more light on it for your macro, to take out co2(along with nuisance elements)..

But, there are a lot of possibilities with what could have hastened his life. But if all the other fish are good, I lean towards it was just that animal. But just watch the other fish, along with maybe feeding them some medicated/vitamin enriched food for a couple weeks..

Best of luck..

 

[mmarro99]

Is this a FOWLR or reef tank?

I just have a hard time believing the pH was less than 7.5 ish and ime fish won't get pH shock moving from 7.5 to 8.0 ish. What kind of buffer did you use? How low does your drop check test kit go anyway?

Fowlr, ph test kit is an api goes down to 7.4 it's like a dark yellow. I should have taken a picture of the test tube color. It wasn't even dark yellow it was like a light beige. If I had to make a strong guess I would have to say it was somewhere in the 6.something range. Buffer was by kent marine.

 

[mmarro99]

If pH was the culprit your fish would have died long ago in the shipping process where pH values swing wildly and quickly. It may have been an additional stress but not the demise of your fish.

Blaming pH is an easy out, but not the cause. A Tang shipped 1st from the Pacific and then to a distributor goes through extreme pH changes and makes it to your tank alive.

Easy way out of what?

 

[mmarro99]

@Damon Thank you for the advice and just input in general. I honestly must say I panicked and made a noob mistake with the buffer I had laying around but what's done is now done. My tank is 72x30x24 and I have two wp60s that alternative on and off every minute, which even at the slowest setting find a way to blow my sand, I run my skimmer hose to the outside of my home and my living room is very well ventilated. Door is always open and the metal screen door is closed. Two large windows are always open, sliding door is always open and the ceiling fan is almost always on. Even in the winter I have a tendency of leaving the windows slightly open and front door ajar. I very recently did add a fan to my sump, not so much directly at the water but right over the sump and also added a wavemaker in my sump. I don't have a fuge just a used 100 gallon acrylic tank holding water heater return skimmer and something home made to hold my filter floss. Salt was instant ocean same stuff I've used for quite a few months now. Who knows, it might not have been the ph that caused my fish to die, i didn't do an autopsy on him. I don't have a doubt in my mind though it did play a big role that did lead to death.

 

[Tahoe61]

Easy way out of what?

No offense was meant.

My intent was that you search else where to a more complicated reason for your fishes death. A sudden significant change in pH may stress an ailing fish but I doubt it would be the sole reason for it's demise.

When shipped in containers fish produce waste which lowers the pH, those container are then opened and the pH changes significantly with the introduction of O2. Fish are exposed to this pH swing multiple times before you get the fish home.

It was a beautiful fish, Tangs can be tricky.

 

[mmarro99]

No offense was meant.

My intent was that you search else where to a more complicated reason for your fishes death. A sudden significant change in pH may stress an ailing fish but I doubt it would be the sole reason for it's demise.

When shipped in containers fish produce waste which lowers the pH, those container are then opened and the pH changes significantly with the introduction of O2. Fish are exposed to this pH swing multiple times before you get the fish home.

It was a beautiful fish, Tangs can be tricky.

Non taken, just a little irritated with my children right now over non related things and when I log on to read something like this it's just icing on the cake. Considering there isn't an autopsy there is no certainty as to what the 100 percent culprit was but atm it's the only thing that can be thought of that was completely wrong with my system. Regardless of the "actual" 100 percent cause of death a ph that low is not acceptable especially when it doesn't take much to have stable all because you took it for granted because everything or everyone looks fine

 

[Tahoe61]

Some Tangs just do not adapt well to captivity. It could have been so many unseen things, nutrition, gill damage from previous parasite or ammonia damage, stress of captivity.

I tend to be the pessimistic reefer unfortunately, spend a small fortune on sps and equipment and it could all go up in smoke for a single tiny error. I guess I would rather be able to take it fore granted instead of worry about alk values, stn, ca, flow........I am sure you know the list goes on and on.

And the reason I do not keep fish really is because of just what happened to your fish. Corals are easier ime.

 

[mmarro99]

Some Tangs just do not adapt well to captivity. It could have been so many unseen things, nutrition, gill damage from previous parasite or ammonia damage, stress of captivity.

I tend to be the pessimistic reefer unfortunately, spend a small fortune on sps and equipment and it could all go up in smoke for a single tiny error. I guess I would rather be able to take it fore granted instead of worry about alk values, stn, ca, flow........I am sure you know the list goes on and on.

And the reason I do not keep fish really is because of just what happened to your fish. Corals are easier ime.

I got him around November of last year about the size of a half dollar and he died at exactly 5 inches on Saturday. Ime fish are easier, they can deal with fluctuations much better than corals and can bounce back better too. Wished it would have been the case with this guy though. If I had the ph drop with corals I'm sure there would have been a lot more casualties. To each their own but in the end we are all in this very addictive gorgeous terrible wonderfull hobby.