Got a funny story...

[Red]

So yesterday I was working at my LFS, and this lady came in and said "all my fish died and I don't know why". Well I tested her water and the PH read zero. I go WTF I though all the PH tests went bad, so I went and grabbed other ones. And I tested it again, and it read ZERO PH. I go, what the heck did you do, tell me in detail on what you did to your fish tank. She went on about a W/C etc and then she goes, I dumped my whole conditioner in the tank, to remove all the bad stuff. And she goes on about why she doesn't do W/C because that stuff gets expensive.

Oh jeez, can people not read the bottle.

[Northernguy]

There is a lot of that out there Red!
Thats where the Mighty AC comes into the picture!:19:

[Red]

Yeah, I just couldn't believe it made it ZERO ph haa..

[Kaz]

LOLOLOLOLOLOL!

WOW! JUST WOW! How do these people function in society?

[Red]

I have to correct my story, it was prime not conditioner haa and I know kaz..

[Northernguy]

Are you sure it was the prime and not an adjustment to the water in your neighborhood.
That could have hurt your tank too!

[Red]

Yeah, I don't think so. She dumped the whole bottle in there, and the PH was zero, but in my case the PH was the same it was always at.

[jaysee]

Wouldn't the water be corrosive at that level? hydrochloric acid has a pH of 2-3

[Red]

True jaysee and now that I think about it, it had to be lower then 4.5. But there was NO sign of color at all on the strips..

[troy]

Maybe too much prime causes the test to be unable to read ph?

[jaysee]

That sounds like a likely explanation.

[jackson17]

A real PH of zero would eat away at the silicone and glass probably. Pure battery acid is at zero, could you imagine adding pure battery acid to a tank and the silicone =O

[Red]

LOL, it would have killed her fish anyways :)

[jackson17]

I didn't know adding a entire bottle could cause such a acidic solution. What chemical compounds are in the bottle to begin with? If its HCL, how does it nutralize chlorine then?

[domjd05]

LOLOLOLOLOLOL!

WOW! JUST WOW! How do these people function in society?

lmao as you can clearly see, they don't function too well :hmm3grin2orange:

[robflanker]

a pH of 0 is technically impossible, it can be minutely small but never 0.

It must have inactivated something that the tests rely upon.

[jackson17]

a pH of 0 is technically impossible, it can be minutely small but never 0.

It must have inactivated something that the tests rely upon.

1 mole of HCL is a PH of zero, very strong, yes, likely to happen, no, can it happen, yes. All the useless time I spend in my chem class is actually paying off.

Gastric acid is at 1 so it has to be possible to get to zero if the stuff in our bodies is so close...Gross now that I'm thinking of it.

[Brookfish]

Did she mention if her fish were affected Red, Geez what a thing to do!

[Red]

yeah all them died. I am tempted to try it myself (no fish of coarse) and measure the PH at school. (the teacher lets me bring in water samples and I can do it with a electric ph tester!)

[domjd05]

I think the conditioner ruined the test pad.. it probably wouldn't bring the PH all the way down to zero.. it's not powerful enough is it?

[Red]

not all the way but maybe like 4.0?

[bushwhacker]

pour a capful of prime and stick a test strip in it i have to doubt that test result....better yet do a test with a good api test kit on straight prime

[jackson17]

Only way would be to pure HCL, and that would be devistating on anything. Usually what you test with in experiments in school is .10 Moles of HCL. It burns slightly, nothing crazy, I couldn't imagine increasing the concentration to a full 1 mole. That would be insane. I'm going to try and make it now, god help me.

[jaysee]

Ahhhh, moles and molar concentrations. :ssmile:

[jackson17]

Ahhhh, moles and molar concentrations. :ssmile:

Basically hell on earth if you ask me. Hate that class, but surprisingly have learned a lot from it. At the time, I was thinking, WTF am I going to use this for.

[Red]

oh god, I am taking it now! I hate converision(spl?) factors

[jaysee]

The conversions weren't so much a problem for me, but I studied physics which is 90% conversions. Chem was DEFINITELY my least favorite science though.

[Mith]

Yes, it IS amazing how some humans ever reach adulthood!

[iZinedane]

poor fishy :spam: