Low Ph

[rainydayz]

I have had my 40 gallon tank for a few months now, everything has been going well. All the sudden my pH is low (6.4-6.6 range) and I can not get it back up! Everything else is at normal levels. Ammonia, Nitrates and Nitrites are good. I have been using Proper pH. That was not helping so I used a combo of that and some Start Right. The only things I have added to my tank are: A moss ball plant, and a Clam which I just learned I need to return because my tank environment will not support it. Those are the only two things I can think of. One of my Rope Fish seem to be in distress. Help is appreciated.

 

[electropunk06]

A PH of 6.4 isn't much to worry about unless you have hard water fish.
What fish do you have in there?
the PH products available don't work because the don't change the KH and GH of your water so the PH crashes again.
A stable PH is much better than a fluctuating one even if its wrong.

Have a look at the 'PH' link in my signature.

 

[markandhisfish]

agreed , messing with ph usualy causes more problems than it cures . the rope fish is probably showing signs of distress froim the big swings in ph the product youre using will be causing rather than a low ph .

 

[rainydayz]

So my Rope Fish lived through the night however I had a large healthy gourami die. Left in my tank I have 2 butterfly fish, 2 rope fish, 2 pictus catfish, 3 guppies, 2 sward tails, 1 gourami, 3 tetra, and a royal pleco. The clam is going back to the pe tstore today but that is there also. I will be doing a water change today, just a few day before schedule. A few weeks ago I changed out the gravel in my tank, could that have dropped the bacteria level enough to do this kind drop on the pH? A friend has a well established tank and it was suggested that I put some of the gravel from that tank into mine. I do not want to do anything with out getting conformation first, because what I thought I was doing before was correct and apparently was not. Thank you guys for your help so far!

 

[markandhisfish]

unless youre running an under gravel filter then the amount of bacteria you removed in the substrate would be negligible . when you say ammonia etc are good what are your actual readings?

 

[electropunk06]

yeah your test results would be useful?

A gourami would be fine in 6.4PH not far from their natural habitat.

I think there is some other cause to your fish's behaviour.

 

[markandhisfish]

i agree

 

[rainydayz]

I have a liquid master kit that tells me my ranges. Ammonia is at 0ppm Nitrate is at 0ppm and my Nitrate is at 0 ppm The only thing that is off is my pH and like I said it is between 6.6 and 6.4. I do not know why my gourami would die, it was behaving normally as far as I can tell and ate last night. One of my rope fish was acting strange but it lived and ate this morning. I dont know what is going on!!! I am so frustrated. I returned that clam so it is no longer in my tank. Is the water change a good idea???

 

[markandhisfish]

a waterchange certainly never hurts , pretty much the 1st line of defence in a lot of cases . strange th your nitrAtes are zero that shouldnt be the case

 

[nicolaisam]

My tank PH is 6.4/6.6 and i have had no problems,I have only had fish in it a while.
I have Cardinal Tetras,Black phantom tetras,Otos and will be buying some Dwarf Apistogramma cichlids soon.
I Live in the Southwest of Cornwall and our water is very soft,so has no natural buffer.As long as the PH is held at that it wont cause any problems.I seem to like fish that like lower Ph tanks.
I have a Big piece of wood in mine that helps keep it lower and i add Indian Almond leaves,that release Tannins and can reduce the PH.

 

[rainydayz]

What should my nitrates be at??? I thought that nitrates at 0 was good.

 

[markandhisfish]

ideally you want nitrates as low as possible , but they should be present as they are a by product of your filter processing nitrite . sorry if im teaching you to suck eggs here but basicly bacteria in the filter process the ammonia produced by the fish , this is then converted into nitrite which is then processed , which in turn produces nitrates which the filter cannot remove . this is where waterchanges come in . hence if the filter is processing nitrite there must be at least some nitrates present