PH Really Low

[Nina7777]

Hi Everyone-
Last night I tested the PH in all my tanks:

10 Gallon- 6.8
30 gallon- 8.0 (perfect for my mbuna's)
55 gallon- 6.0
Tap water- 6.8

My 55 gallon worries me! Its sooo low compared to the 10 gallon and the tap water. Does anyone know why this might be? The fish are all fine. the tank is only two weeks old, but i moved the filter an dhalf the gravel from the old tank so it only did a mini cycle.

I do change about 10% of the water every other day, could this be causing such a low ph?

Will my fish be ok over a long period of time, as i don't want to use chemicles to adjust the ph. Any suggestions appreciated!
Thanks!

 

[tstenback]

The PH being 6 should not be a problem a the fish should adjust. with the tap water being 6.8 and the tank being 6 that could be something to watch. Do you have the ability to measure hardness (GH KH). Sometimes in a new tank there will be a swing in PH until the water chemistry is stable for a while so you may see this change over the next while. HTH and keep an eye on that

 

[jams.alaskan]

How are you keeping the ph of 8 in your 30 gallon? You really have a high range of differences. I'm just wondering. Do you have wood in the 55?

ALASKA

 

[Nina7777]

I keep the Ph at 8.0 in my 30 gallon because i keep mbuna cichlids in there, which require it. I use tuffa rock to keep the ph stable at 8.0.

No i don't have nay wood in my 55 gallon. The only thing that i do have is a clay pot. Coudl this be causing it?

 

[pete28]

have you tried not doing a water change for say a week and then testing the level maybe the tank environment hasnt had a chance to stabilize due to so much water changing

 

[G_Sharky]

If you want your ph to be stable as possible you should start aging your water. By this I mean get a big container and store your water there with an airstone this way your ph wouldn't raise or drop and if you want you could add a heater so you could match the temp of your tank. I do this for my Discus and they are very sensitive to any change in water...

 

[jams.alaskan]

Thanks Nina, I was just wondering... About the clay pot, I've not the foggiest idea, I'd doubt it would do much either way.

ALASKA

 

[jams.alaskan]

Thanks Nina, I was just wondering... About the clay pot, I've not the foggiest idea, I'd doubt it would do much either way.

ALASKA

 

[Nina7777]

Alaska- Your welcome, your not the first person to question my high ph in the 30 gallon

Perhaps i am doing too many water changes. But because the tank is newer i have been having traces of amonia when doing my tests, therefor this is why i keep doing the water changes

once the tank cycles maybe it will even out?

 

[sinistral]

Hi Nina~~

I would tend to err on the side of more water changes rather than less, especially if you are still getting ammonia readings. If anything, my belief is that more frequent water changes lead to greater water stability, as this ensures that the conditions in your tank more closely resemble conditions of your water coming out of the tank. If you are adding dechlorinator (I'm sure you are ) I'm not sure about the benefit of aging water. If there are extraordinarily high or low levels of dissolved CO2 in your tap water, aging will allow these to equilibrate and may affect pH. I don't age my tapwater, although I used to-- my animals aren't as sensitive as G_Sharky's discuses.

In any event, I would second what tstenback wrote initially: it might be fruitful to check kH and GH in the tank. Are you doing gravel siphons with each 10% water change? My far out hypothesis is that (if you aren't), you may be siphoning off water without removing a sufficient quantity of organic waste. This might be concentrating your organic load instead of diluting it. The resultant organic acids produced are using up alkaline buffer and causing the pH drop, and also may account for trace ammonia readings. I don't know much about sharks, but if they are large fish and messy, this could all hang together as a sort of far-fetched explanation.

If this were the case, the solution would be (counterintuitively) to do *larger* scale water changes-- 20-30% at a time with a good gravel siphoning, removing the organic burden and adding back buffer to make the tank more similar to your tap water.

I wouldn't go about things in this way without looking further into it, as there are several other causes of low pH that might be going on. I certainly wouldn't add chemicals at this point without establishing what's going on in the tank. HTH~

 

[Nina7777]

Thank you for the reply. I was doing 10% water changes every day. I have now switched to about 20% water changes every other day, and siphoning the Gravel.
(but only spots of the gravel, not the whole thing.)

I am not going to add any chemicles to bring the ph back to normal. Perhaps it just needs time to settle in.

Yes my "sharks" are Large! 6 and 7 inches. They are very messy, and I feed a ton of different foods all high in protein. I have two HOB filters running at all times. and Emporer 400 and a aquatech for up to 60 gallons.

Perhaps i will cut back on the water changes to twice a week with a gravel sweep, as the amonia has been 0 for the past 3 days.

Thanks again! and i'll let everyone know how it goes.