Several weeks ago, I tested the water on my fish tank since the fish looked a bit unhealthy. The strip showed I needed to make the water more alkaline. Don’t ask me why, but I thought about it and miscalculated what I needed to do. I decided to make the water more acidic.’ Looking around the house, I found some vinegar and poured a bit in the water. The fish swam lower in the tank, presumably to avoid the offensive item in the water. I retested the water and it was even worse.
I saw my big bottle of bleach and once again miscalculated. I added a quick splash. The fish shot to the bottom of the tank and started gasping. The tank also smelled instantly of swimming pool. I knew right away that what I had done was killing the fish. Reacting poorly (once again), I immediately started bailing water. Don’t ask me why I didn’t bail the fish out and dump them in fresh water. I guess I panicked. Well, in minutes all of the fish died. I decided after they died to do some research on pH levels. Here is what I came up with:
Neutral (drinking water) is 7.0 on the pH scale. Goldfish love this.
Vitamin C rich Juice (lemon juice, orange juice) measures around 3.0 to 3.8 on the pH scale.
Bleach is highly alkaline and comes in between 12.0 and 13.0 on the pH scale. If I had added a few drops, my fish would be alive today. But the splash turned my water into pure poison for the fish.
The scale runs from 0 to 14 with the lower numbers being more acidic (0 to 7) and the higher numbers (7-14) being more alkaline.
There is so much more I could tell you, but these are the basics for fish.
When my husband arrived home, we gave all of the fish a burial at sea (toilet), and emptied the tank completely. Then we cleaned the whole tank out, replaced the water and the filter and waited a week. My new fish are happier and you can be assured that I have a large bottle of fluid which will correctly adjust the water if it ends up too high or too low on the pH scale. One tank full of dead fish was more than enough for me. I hope this helps other fish owners.