Kh? Ph? Co2? Avoiding Ph Crash ..

[tanyauk]

Hello everybody! I want start injecting CO2 in my 300l planted tank. The tank has been cycling for 3 months now with following readings:

ammonia - 0
KH - 3 degrees (54ppm)
Ph 7.2 ( i am suprises it's that high, I always thought it'l less that that)
I use crashed corals in my external filter.
I tried to start injecting CO2 for 2 days and I think Ph crashed as all fish looked stressed and some started to loose their scales. I switched off CO2 after that.
Could you suggest me what to do.
Do I have to buffer my water and what is the best buffer available?
Do I have to buffer KH or Ph?
Thank you

 

[SuperColey1]

You won't have fish losing scales from injecting CO2 at that Ph unless they need higher Ph.

As a guideline my natural Ph from the tap is 7.2-7.4 with CO2 it goes down as low as 6.2 but normally about 6.4-6.6

My fish are pitbull plecs, black mollys, balloon mollys, glolight tetras and 1 male betta, so I guess you could say I have a reasonably varied range of fish.

None have ever had probs with the Ph at all over the 6 weeks its been continuously on, so I guess you have a really major problem to find!!!

 

[tanyauk]

thank you for your reply!
I guess I have bacteria bloom, one fish died from dropsy, i am treating tank with myxazine.
Do I need to buffer KH anyway? It seems a bit low...
My fish are Denison barbs, golden barbs, cories and danios.

 

[Dave Spencer]

I run CO2 at 30ppm with no problems, and my kH does not register on my test kit.

Try and keep things simple and avoid adding chemicals unnecessarily.

Cheers, Dave.