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I bought a Bristlenose pleco a few weeks ago and he lasted a week in my 20 gal. tank, I bought another one, and he too only lasted a week. My lfs asked for a sample of water and it turns out my ph is around 8.2. I'm guessing the shock of going from 7.0 to 8.2 is what killed them. I also have lost 2 phantom tetras in the past week in the same tank.
my water parameters are;

ph 8.2
nitrite 0
ammonia 0
nitrate 20ppm
gh 25ppm
kh 120ppm
I have a water softener in my house.

I acclimate new fish by floating the bag for about 10 minutes, add a small cupful of water every ten minutes or so until the bag is full, net them and discarded the lfs water.

My tap water comes out at a ph of around 8.5. I've come up with a system over the past couple of years of adding acid buffer to my water and have been able to keep a pretty consistent ph of about 7.3. I've gotten lazy and haven't tested my tank water in a while so the ph must have crept up on me. I've been adding acid buffer to slowly bring the ph back down and so far it is working. I'm not crazy about adding chemicals, but I don't know what else to do.

I've been keeping angels and cories in my 45 and tetras and cories in my 20. I've only been losing fish in the twenty though, the water parameters in the 45 are the same.

Thanks for any help

Mike

I have been using the Seachem Acid Buffer for about 6 months now, I haven't had a single problem with it, and will continue to use it.

My tap water has a pH of 8.5
I sprinkle a little in with each water change and maintain a nice good 7.0

In the case of high pH, acclimation should be done over an hour's time by adding small amounts of tank water to the bag and frequent testing until you match the tank's pH...

Failure to do this will kill the new fish, as you've already discovered.

--garyroland.

Slow acclimation for new fish is best. If you think one hour is good, two hours is better for the process.

You may want to check on the water parameters of the LFS compared to your tank. I compared the LFS water to my tank and found the pH to be similar. HOWEVER, I tested the conductivity of the water and found that the LFS tested at 1600 ms where my water is 300 ms. The conductivity of water increases with dissolved minerals.

Since both the LFS and I share the local water system, I would be inclined that to believe that they practice poor tank maintenance or dose the tanks to prevent disease outbreaks.

As a result, I have extended the period of acclimating fish from one hour to four hours and have had no losses.

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Thanks all for the replies.

I'll definitely be changing the way I acclimate new fish and testing the water more often.

Mike

You'd have to be a very patient person to take four hours to acclimate a bag of new trops...

Actually, the secret for some, would be very small amounts of tank water added to the bag, perhaps as little as a quarter of a cup every five or six minutes and testing for pH every third quarter cup.

The process, especially with a tank that's high in pH, would take longer to get a bag and tank match, but I'm sure the results would be worth it.

The secret is to slowly match the pH to prevent any shock possibilities. Some fish can tolerate a slight mismatch, others cannot.

--garyroland.