Ph Crashes After Using Co 2

[littleme1969]

Well ive done a little research into all this stuff and have tried to solve the problem. Have managed to stabalize PH in my 95g tank but its now gone really cloudy..lol
A bit of background info..
I have 2 main tanks.. one 5' 95ukg community and one 30ukg guppy breeding tank. Both are planted and have bogwood and fine gravel substrate. After having poor growth of plants despite 2watts per gallon I though I would give home made Co2 a go. .. Should have done more reaserch as I didnt realise that adding co2 could cause a major PH crash if the tank only has low KH. To cut a long story short..the plants grew great!!.. them my fish started looking a little unhappy So i though I had better do a few tests. was shocked out of my chair to see the PH at 5.5.. when our tap water is 7.6. No wonder the poor fish were looking less than happy, as after doing more reading I discover that PH crashing below 6.5 can cause bacteria to die and so you get a situation of NTS and increased ammonia .. Luckily I managed to get a grip on things before I lost any fish.. well thats the background to my situation so now a few questions..
How when my tap water KH is 10 do I end up with KH of 3 in my tanks? is this due to not enough water changes? the tank has been up and running for 18 months now.
As I mentioned above I have managed to stabalize the main tank, by cutting the Co2 down to 1/3 and adding crushed sea coral as a buffer.. this seem to have sorted it and I now have a constant PH of about 6.8 but the tank is rather cloudy..lol *bangs head against wall!!**
Tank 2 the 30 gallon.. same problem really but for some reason this tank wont stabalize.. used the same things as the main tank.. stopped co 2 all together added croal buffer.. but a week later i'm still having to do daily 10% water changes to keep the PH above 6.5. I do the water change and it goes upto 6.8 - 7.0 and 24 hrs later its back down to 6.5 - 6-6.. should I just keep up the water changes until the tank settles itself? its about got me beat
Another strange thing.. I used some bog wood from the 30g in a 8 gallon tank that I use just for general quarantine. This tank has never had Co2 in it and only has fine gravel substrate and a few java ferns, plus a large pile of bog wood as its currently being used for bristle nose plecs. this tank since adding the bogwood is behaving the same way, huge PH crashes. 15% water changes bring it back to 7 but 24hrs later its back to 6.5...gggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Any advice would be greatly appreciated guys!!
And the moral of this story is.. reasarch more before you play with things you dont truly understand!!!..lol

 

[dazcoops]

hi

do you use any fert with your co2? what level of c02 did you have in the water?

bog wood will soften water, try the tank with out the bog wood for a bit and see how that goes.


cheers darren

 

[littleme1969]

hi

do you use any fert with your co2? what level of c02 did you have in the water?

bog wood will soften water, try the tank with out the bog wood for a bit and see how that goes.


cheers darren

Thanks for the reply darren..

Yes I do use a fert along with the Co2 I use Leaf Zone by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals inc. I only use about 40% of the recomended amount as I founf I ended up with a huge hair algae problem when I used full amount.

I was aware that bog wood softens the water as that was the reason I added it to my tanks to start off with. As most people who first set up a tank I experienced a large rise in PH due to new gravel substrate. rising for 7.6 to 8.6.. so for about 6 months I struggled with high PH..lol
Talking the bogwood out of my tanks is sadly not an option as all my tanks have breeding/growing on bristles nose plecs in them, and I'm sure that there would be a huge stampeed of pissed of plecs if I removed it!..lol also it makes up most of the decoration in the main tanks so would look pretty darn bare without it.. and what would I do with £250 quids worth of bog/mopani wood..lol

Any ideas as to why the PH would crash so quickly? i'm really at a loss here and dont want to go down the road of adding chemical PH bufers if I can help it.

Thanks

Nikki

 

[qwikimpss]

If you are having the same issue with the 8 gallon dropping to 6.5 as the larger tank then the CO2 isn't the cause of it (obviously) but when you put the CO2 into the larger tank it just drove it down further. Now that I'm done stating the obvious, when you do water changes do you vac the gravel? Decomposing waste can lower PH....just an idea.

 

[littleme1969]

If you are having the same issue with the 8 gallon dropping to 6.5 as the larger tank then the CO2 isn't the cause of it (obviously) but when you put the CO2 into the larger tank it just drove it down further. Now that I'm done stating the obvious, when you do water changes do you vac the gravel? Decomposing waste can lower PH....just an idea.

Well after you so nicley stated the obvious..lol I would say that I had worked that out for myself... hense the reason of mentioning it, was just trying to clarify if the bog/mopani wood that I moved from the 30g into the 8 could be a cause, as the 8g never had a problem until I added the extra bog wood. thought maybe it could have absorbed co2 from the other tank.. Ok maybe that sound bonkers but I'm just grasping at any possible straw here to find a way to stop the problem before I have dead fish

Yes I do vac my gravel.. I do 2 water changes a week about 15% and clean the internal filter in one( with water taken from the tank) then vac the gravel in the other. I do this in all my tanks and its always kept amonia at 0 and nitrates at about 12.5 - 25. Its only since adding co2 that I started checking such things as GH & KH.

I have a lot of babies in my 30g so have to be carefull not to change too much water at once, as this seems to stress the fish and cause outbreaks of fin rot. The joys of keeping fancy guppies

I'm really at a loss of what to do.. maybe I though there would be a simple explanation that I had overlooked.. but I think I was kidding myself..lol

 

[Themuleous]

Hi,

For what it’s worth, I had exactly the same problem with my middle tank. Kept getting home to find the KH had dropped off the scale i.e <1. That caused a ph of around 6.4. I realised that I had added a new piece of bogwood about a month or so ago, took this out and everything returned to normal.

Having done a bit of research, I realised that there are in fact two kinds of bogwood, the first is Moapi (or however you spell it!) which in fact comes from a tree and is not 'bod' wood at all. The other kind (don’t think it has a name other than 'bogwood’) comes from peat bogs. I realised that the piece I had removed was the latter, and although I wouldn't quote me on this I reckon it was removing the KH from the tank and causing the pH to drop rapidly. Lost a gold ram during this.

Cant say I really understand the PH/KH relationship but its want my experience has taught me.

Just an idea

Sam

 

[qwikimpss]

Well, you got me "stumped" (yes the pun was intended no matter how lame it was). Maybe Jimbooo can chime in soon. I can't really diag. this problem as I have never had a problem with low PH (I would love low PH tho!)

 

[zig]

What is the normal KH from your tapwater?

 

[littleme1969]

Some interesting points guys.. I'll enclose some tank pic.. sorry they are a bit crap..lol just took them quickly 10 mins ago..
Large 5@ 95uk gallon

This tank seems to have now settled with PH 7.1 after 25% water change today and KH 4

Medium Tank 30UKgallon

Crap pic .. This tank has not had its water change today and the PH is 6.9 and KH 2

Small Tank 8UKgallon

30% water change today as I have just moved out some fish. PH 7.0 KH 4

The PH of my tap water is 7.8 and KH is 10..these were taken after standing the water for 24hrs
All tanks run between 78 - 80 degress and have 0 amonia and between 12.5 and 25 nitrate
The only tank that is currently getting any Co 2 is the large tank and I have cut that down to 1/3 what it was. Its in 1 2ltr bottle injected by feeding pipe into internal filter above foam (boom fitted to stop foam rising and blocking tube) This breaks the bubbles into really tiny ones and so increases the absorbtion greatly.

I'm definate that the Co2 was the original reason for the PH crases but the only reason for that is due to the low KH.. I'm thinking there must be something in this bog wood thing. As you can see from pics I have both Bogwood and mopani wood in my tanks.. the latter making up 80% of the wood. I think I will remove a few pieces and put it in a bucket for a few days and see if it lowers the KH. It makes sence as the the only time I had a problem with the small tank was when I doubled the amount of wood in there. (the pic above shows tank after I have removed 2 large chunks.

 

[TammyLiz]

I'm no expert, but what about putting some crushed coral into your filter or something to raise the KH? My tap has KH of 0 and my pH crashes even though I don't have CO2 and thats what I ended up doing after messing around with baking soda for a while. It just kept crashing back down. Someone said my vals must have been using it up. That crushed coral could be buffering up as your bogwood is buffering down. It can shoot your pH through the roof to 8.4 if you're not careful, but it sounds like in your case you have plenty of reason to use it.

 

[jimbooo]

Well, you got me "stumped" (yes the pun was intended no matter how lame it was). Maybe Jimbooo can chime in soon. I can't really diag. this problem as I have never had a problem with low PH (I would love low PH tho!)

sorry same here my KH is 13 so i never get below 6.5, normally sits around 6.8. i wont try to advise you as it would all be guesswork. hopefully someone will be able to help you soon. your probably going to have to add some PH buffer to the water or something but as i say, i'm not 100%.

 

[littleme1969]

I'm no expert, but what about putting some crushed coral into your filter or something to raise the KH?

I already use the crushed coral.. thats how I mangaed to stabalise the large tank. worked a treat
But for some reason its taking its time on the other tanks. I'm almost positive the KH crashes are due to bog wood. I've put some in a bucket and will test in 2 days. I'll post the results here.
I think it would be a good idea if someone with a bit more KH PH bogwood relation knowledge would do a pinned write up. This is all interesting stuff and people who are adding co 2 should be made aware of the problems you can have.. Just a thought so others dont havve to learn the hard way! B)