PH DROP!

[Jae1525]

I have a small problem.

My tank that is fishless cycling at the moment is doing well! I boiled some bogwood in aquarium salts yesterday and put it in my tank after rinsing it.

Did my usual checks and the ph has dropped form 6.5 to about 5-5.5!!!

Whats the deal with that?
Any clues?

It cant stay like that cos The fish I want wont tollerate those ph conditions?

 

[Tammy2080]

bog wood is used to lower PH, eventually after a few water changes the PH should rise again

 

[Jae1525]

Cool! cheers!
You learn sumthin new every day!
I put a sht load of it in yesterday!

 

[FishDan]

Bogwood alone should not drop pH that far that fast. It should be a gradual shift. I would think there is something else also acting to lower the pH. The bogwood alone almost certainly can't be the cause.

\Dan

 

[ger87410]

Nobody here has asked this yet and I'm surprised. What is your hardness and alkalinity (buffer) of your tank? Low hardness and/or buffer equals low pH.

 

[Jae1525]

God... My water is sooooo soft!! Its a dream for keepin fish. So easy to adjust.

Gh <3
Kh <3

Gonna get some baking soda in there to pick it up!

It dont rly matter at the mo about ph 2 much cos there is no fish in there!

 

[luxum]

Fishless cycling (hard cycling, at 5ppm or more) produces a lot of biological activity which uses up buffers at an astounding rate. If there is nothing in there right now i wouldn't worry about it, it will likely stabilize after you do the final water change(s) and get fish in there, the metabolic rate of the bacteria should be quite a bit lower than when you were feeding ammonia directly and won't use up the buffers so fast.

 

[nutter]

If your keeping discus they can handle that ph aslong as its completley stable

 

[Jae1525]

Nah, no discus.

Its a shame cos my local water is so good that I could quite easily keep them but there just too expensive and rly dont do that much for me anyway!

I like fish with character. Whenever I see a discus its just bobbing in the water not doin much. They are beautiful but they aint all that and a bag of potato chips girlfriend! (clicks his she-male fingers about his head)

 

[nutter]

lol, i gotcha