Ph Keeps Going Down Despite The Chemicals

[HYJ]

Hi, I posted about the PH problem I have about a week ago.

I have 5 gallon aquarium with 2 neons and 2 cardinals and one guppy.

I actually had 2 more guppies until yesterday but they died due to the PH flunctuation.

A week ago, my PH was actually below 6.0. I am not sure about the exact PH because the API liquid test kit only measures the PH as low as 6.0.

I knew that the PH was below 6.0 because the color of the water still fell within the 6.0 range despite I kept using PH up product.

As a result, I got a product called seachem neutral regulator that is supposed to adjust your PH level automatically to 7.0.

I have been adding that to my aquarium for the past 7 days...yet I found two guppies dead today.

So I have just tested my PH and the results gave me somewhere between 6.4~6.6.

Apparently, the PH is constantly going down in my aquarium..

Somehow the neons and the cardinals are doing fine.. Despite I have used the chemicals, they seem to have no problems at all.

Anyway what should I do in this case?

 

[aussieant32]

Hi!

Is there any wood in your tank? the reason i ask is that this will lower your PH, escpecially in that smaller tank.

Do you have live plants or plastic? Also what type of filter are you running?

The reason your guppies may have died is that you should only gradually change your ph, i would raise mine no more that 0.2 per day so depending on how you did it this may have killed them unfortunatley!

You may find as wel that the neons and cardinals will need to be removed soon duse to size, i wouldn't recommend keeping them in groups of less then about 6-7.

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

Cardinals and Neons come from water that is very soft and acidic so they don't mind lower pH.

My guess is that the majority of issues is coming from the tank size, and the mineral content of your tap water. It's very difficult to keep such a small volume of water stable, especially if your tap water is "soft", and I know that it seems like your fish are tiny enough for it, but they would be better off in a larger aquarium.

Did you remove the driftwood you mentioned in a previous post? Driftwood does cause pH to lower over time.
Did you get a GH/KH test kit as was recommended to you before?
Did you purchase some crushed coral, and place a small amount in your filter as recommended to you before?

 

[HYJ]

Hi!

Is there any wood in your tank? the reason i ask is that this will lower your PH, escpecially in that smaller tank.

Do you have live plants or plastic? Also what type of filter are you running?

The reason your guppies may have died is that you should only gradually change your ph, i would raise mine no more that 0.2 per day so depending on how you did it this may have killed them unfortunatley!

You may find as wel that the neons and cardinals will need to be removed soon duse to size, i wouldn't recommend keeping them in groups of less then about 6-7.

Thanks for the reply. Yes I have one driftwood in the tank, and three fake silk plants. My tank is eclipse 5 corner aquarium so it uses bio-wheel.

The weird thing is...I have had this tank about a year or so..and I have had the driftwood ever since I first set up the tank.

Despite I had the drift wood in my tank for entire time, I never had a problem with the PH until few months ago.

Why would the driftwood cause problems when it didn't for the past 8-9 months or so?

 

[HYJ]

Cardinals and Neons come from water that is very soft and acidic so they don't mind lower pH.

My guess is that the majority of issues is coming from the tank size, and the mineral content of your tap water. It's very difficult to keep such a small volume of water stable, especially if your tap water is "soft", and I know that it seems like your fish are tiny enough for it, but they would be better off in a larger aquarium.

Did you remove the driftwood you mentioned in a previous post? Driftwood does cause pH to lower over time.
Did you get a GH/KH test kit as was recommended to you before?
Did you purchase some crushed coral, and place a small amount in your filter as recommended to you before?

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I tested my tap water and the tap water PH always seem to be around 7.0~7.2

As for the driftwood, I didn't remove it because despite I had the drift wood in my tank for entire time, I never had a problem with the PH until few months ago.

Why would the driftwood cause problems when it didn't for the past 8-9 months or so?

As for the GH/KH kit, I asked for one at the LFS, and they didn't seem to know what it it. I looked around the shelves, but I also couldn't find the test kit for
those

As for the crunched corals, I actually got the netraul regulator 7.0 instead, because I wasn't sure where to put the crushed corals in my filter.

I use the biowheel filter, and it looks quite different from other typical power filter.

Luckily the neons/cardinals didn't die despite of the sudden PH flunctuations.

 

[aussieant32]

the driftwood slowly leaks into the water and adjusts your PH gradually, usually once it gets to a certain point it will just drop your PH rapidly like it is in your tank.

Go to your lfs and ask for test that tests water hardness as you may have just had someone who wasn't sure what you meant. I can almost garuntee that your PH issues are due to your driftwood! Id be wary of adding coral to your filter, i keep a Malawi tank and use it as the PH needs to be kept at about 8.2, if you only have a basic knowledge id still use the regulator.

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

The pH of pure water is very close to 7, so it's possible to have water with low buffering capacity (low KH) read at around 7 depending on how much CO2 is absorbed. Pure standing water will usually drop in pH to about 6ish as CO2 is exchanged, while a standing pH of 7 usually has some measure of buffering capacity. Once the buffers are used up however, the pH sinks. Something acidic is chewing through your buffer, and if it's not the wood then...

Do you know what the nitrate levels are in the tank?
How often and how much water do you change during tank maintenance?
When you do maintenance do you stick the vac deep into the gravel or just skim the top?

Just wondering if it's possible that you've got a build up of decaying materials somewhere that could be contributing.

As for crushed coral in the filter...just put a very small amount in an never used nylon stocking, and slip it between the mechanical filter media (there should be some sort of pad or pouch), and the front of the casing if there is space. Do not put it near the impeller obviously. If the mechanical media has clothlike pouch for carbon, you could carefully slice it open and put the nylon "bag" in there, and loosely sew it back up.

 

[HYJ]

I do not know the nitrate levels but last week when I checked my water, the ammonia was 0.

I clean out about 20~25% of the water once a week, but I just skim the top.

In the case that the decaying materials are causing all these problems..will it eventuall pull my PH down to 5.0 or less range if I don't clean them out?

The pH of pure water is very close to 7, so it's possible to have water with low buffering capacity (low KH) read at around 7 depending on how much CO2 is absorbed. Pure standing water will usually drop in pH to about 6ish as CO2 is exchanged, while a standing pH of 7 usually has some measure of buffering capacity. Once the buffers are used up however, the pH sinks. Something acidic is chewing through your buffer, and if it's not the wood then...

Do you know what the nitrate levels are in the tank?
How often and how much water do you change during tank maintenance?
When you do maintenance do you stick the vac deep into the gravel or just skim the top?

Just wondering if it's possible that you've got a build up of decaying materials somewhere that could be contributing.

As for crushed coral in the filter...just put a very small amount in an never used nylon stocking, and slip it between the mechanical filter media (there should be some sort of pad or pouch), and the front of the casing if there is space. Do not put it near the impeller obviously. If the mechanical media has clothlike pouch for carbon, you could carefully slice it open and put the nylon "bag" in there, and loosely sew it back up.

 

[OldMan47]

Try a deep gravel vac with the next few water changes and get that decaying matter out of the gravel. With a wheel type of filter there is some space behind the filter element where you could put some crushed shell and get plenty of pH effect from it. I would be cautious not to overdo the crushed shell on such a small tank volume. The thing about having no problem for months and then a change may just indicate that your local water supplier has made some kind of change in the way they process your water or in the water source itself. My village uses a well system to supply water but when they added a new water tower to the system a few years ago, the change in the water from my tap was dramatic. We could actually taste the change that came with the new system it was so great. My first guess is that you have something similar going on to a lesser degree with your water supply that is leaving it lower in mineral content than it once was. That means the water's pH will move around easier than it once did.

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

I'd suggest that you may want to start sinking your siphon all the way to the bottom of the gravel (and watch how much junk gets sucked up!). You may not be able to do the whole tank bed in one water change, but try to get about half of it done so you can do the other half the next time.