Rapidly Dropping ph!

[ClownLurch]

In post #8 you mention you put new filter media in. That’s not recommended unless keeping the old as well. You’ve thrown away a lot of beneficial bacteria if so by doing so. When it gets dirty or clogged just wash it in old tank water during a water change then put it back in. Im surprised no ones picked up on that point unless I’ve got the wrong end of the stick?

I don’t know about your pre filter sponges? Are they Aquarium safe? A North American poster may be more familiar with the product than I am?

You mention you’re not familiar with forums. One tip: when attempting to reply or attract someone’s attention name them with a @ immediately in front of their forum name ie @ClownLurch or @day.t

Have fun on here. Between them they know just about everything you’ll need to know on the fishkeeping front. Terrible dress sense and musical taste though. Truly truly shocking to be honest.
Stay safe.

 

[day.t]

Hi again, sorry for taking so long to respond & thanks again for the input. Byron, we are Oregon natives, but happen to currently be "stuck" in Georgia! But I think this area has soft water, too. I couldn't find much on the county's water website. The only parameters I noticed given besides things like fluoride & chlorine were nitrates as nitrogen at 0.7 ppm. I am happy to move the platies to another tank &/or figure out how to make harder water, though! The only other tankmates are corydoras. Are they OK with hard water? B/C maybe I should just be fixing that tank (?)

We changed the water again day before yesterday and everybody seemed to perk up a lot. The 2 platies are back to swimming all over again, the panda corys are flocking & flying all over the place and today the pygmy corys are mating like crazy. Seems that of the 3 we have left there are 2 females & only a single male. We haven't had the pygmies that long, but have had the pandas for at least 6 or 7 months. Started with 8 and last count we have around 40! I'm going to have to part with the juveniles soon. We just don't have room. A LFS has taken platies from us in trade quite a bit, but we've never taken any corys in yet. I imagine we'll be dealing with plenty of pygmy corys soon, too.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that the entire tank seems to be back to normal, & many thanks for all the good advice. I'm still a bit confused about the GH & KH & what to do about it, but will try to keep learning. Any advice is gladly accepted. Besides the 75G, we have a 29G with 7 tiger barbs & 2 other platies and a 36G with 7 skirt tetras and our 8 panda adults, plus the few babies we haven't caught yet. I keep a 20G with no fish, but cycled, in the basement along with a 10G for platy fry. So, I can rearrange living quarters for those platy, but don't want to upset them until I know what I'm doing!

 

[day.t]

Hey, @ClownLurch, somehow your message didn't show up when I was 1st here today, but after I posted it showed up. I'm so glad you brought up the filter media, because I really did think it must not have mattered! So... that "could" explain a little bit, I suppose, or maybe a little bit more. Because it was right after that when we began noticing the downward trend, but I unfortunately delayed testing the pH. I think there must've been something more going on, too. And another thing I failed to mention: that tank has had rams horn snails freely roaming about for several months. They didn't bother me that much, so I didn't care. I have assassin snails in another tank because of bladder snails. But after the 2nd water change the other day I started noticing how huge some of those snails had gotten and how many of them there are. I've been picking them out steadily since then. Do you think an overpopulation of those snails could have caused the parameters to lurch? I'll make it a point to get rid of them if so!

Did I do the "@" correctly, BTW? I must fit right in here, at least as far as wardrobe sense goes. I'm an old hippie who still dresses the same as in my teens, much to my own teenaged grandchildren's horror. They don't seem to like Neil Young, Bonnie Raitt, et al, as much as we do, but I chalk that up to their bad taste, not ours!

 

[ClownLurch]

Hey, @ClownLurch, somehow your message didn't show up when I was 1st here today, but after I posted it showed up. I'm so glad you brought up the filter media, because I really did think it must not have mattered! So... that "could" explain a little bit, I suppose, or maybe a little bit more. Because it was right after that when we began noticing the downward trend, but I unfortunately delayed testing the pH. I think there must've been something more going on, too. And another thing I failed to mention: that tank has had rams horn snails freely roaming about for several months. They didn't bother me that much, so I didn't care. I have assassin snails in another tank because of bladder snails. But after the 2nd water change the other day I started noticing how huge some of those snails had gotten and how many of them there are. I've been picking them out steadily since then. Do you think an overpopulation of those snails could have caused the parameters to lurch? I'll make it a point to get rid of them if so!

Did I do the "@" correctly, BTW? I must fit right in here, at least as far as wardrobe sense goes. I'm an old hippie who still dresses the same as in my teens, much to my own teenaged grandchildren's horror. They don't seem to like Neil Young, Bonnie Raitt, et al, as much as we do, but I chalk that up to their bad taste, not ours!

The filter media is very important. Don’t throw any away without “breaking in” new filter media. Also don’t wash it in clean water, wash it in used tank water while doing a water change.
Plus don’t wash “new” filter media for the first time until it’s been in for at least 4-6 weeks. Though others will be better able to advise you on that.
Im only passing on what’s been drummed into me on here through reading it countless times over the past few months. During lockdown I’ve done a lot of fish related research and most sites and books emphasise the above filter stuff.

Neil Young gets a thumbs up. Bonnie Raitt not so much. Stay safe.
Stay safe.

 

[day.t]

@ClownLurch, thanks. I really think I made a big mistake throwing out that media. We never use "fresh" tap water - always have a few 5G buckets sitting around aging, plus we use Safe when we change the 75G b/c it's too big to save up enough water for it. I use it occasionally to wash stuff, but usually use the old water from W.C.s. I think I was just too lazy to bother washing that filter floss, but would've if only I'd known I could cause so much damage! Thanks for passing on the advice. It sounds like the idea is to phase in any new media while retaining most of the old. I guess I could see just pulling off the most "rotten" stuff & maybe add a little new every now & then. Hard lesson, but there's just so much more to this than I ever imagined.

Bonnie Raitt does have a fantastic voice though, no? Actually, my all-time favorite female vocalist is Linda Ronstadt. I wanted to be her when I was young. Loved Carly Simon, too, but nobody like Linda. Glad you like Neil at least

 

[ClownLurch]

Oh I like Carly Simon as well. More in my much younger years though. Was THAT album cover the same over there as over here?

 

[StevenF]

Well now that I know you live in Georgia I can better answer this question:

What in the world could be causing their water to drop its PH so drastically and so quickly?

The PH dropped mainly because of nutrient consumption of plants and to a lesser extent the animals in your tank.

Plants need (in order of amount) Nitrogen, potassium, Calcium, magnesium,phosphorous, sulfur and chloride (Chloride salts are safe while pure chlorine is not).

George tap water is from my understanding and willl have some calcium and magnesium sulfate, chlorides and carbonates. When plants do grow they take in a lot of nutrients and magnesium and calcium consumption has a big role in ph. A lot calcium and magnesium is consumed but very little sulfate and chloride. As a result as plants grow the calcium and magnesium levels drop leaving behind excess sulfate and chloride. And the excess sulfate and chloride will push PH down. In a plant only tank i have observe the PH drop all the way down to 5 with with just an air stone to provide.

One simple trick I found to Keep the PH stable is to put a nail shell in the filter. The snail shell is made mainly of calcium carbonate. Solid calcium carbonate has no effect on tank PH but when it dissolves it will react with the excess sulfate and chloride to form calcium sulfate and calcium chloride which have no effect on PH. Any calcium carbonate that doesn't dissolve will push the ph up to 7. Once PH is 7 and all excess chlorides and sulfates are used up calcium carbonate will stop dissolveing.

Other nutrients can also cause PH shift but in general they have less of an effect on PH than calcium and magnesium. CO2 can also cause PH to drop but you need a lot to see that and once it gets that high it will outgas from the water. But a weekly 50% water change is a good way to prevent running out of any nutrient or preventing a nutrient build up.

Fish also need the same nutrients are plants but fish food contains most of what they need. But the amount in water can affect the health of the fish. Some fish do well in hard water while others do well in soft water . GH is a measure of total calcium and magnesium in the water. You should try to match the GH to what your fish will prefer. If you have a mix of soft water and hard water fish you might have to aim for a medium harness value. or change the mix of fish in the tank.

 

[day.t]

@StevenF, oh gracious, talk about indepth explanation. My eyes started fogging up somewhere in there, but I can let you understand the specific science while I grab the great suggestions! I can certainly put a snail shell in the filter. I also have a substantial Oregon coast shell collection, if adding any of those would help. I'm ready to do whatever it takes to help these pets.

Does anyone have an idea about the over-abundance of rams horn snails & if that would be enough to cause problems? Or is it probably a combination of several things?

@ClownLurch - which album cover d'ya mean? If it's the one from my high school year, probably. The biggest compliment I got back then was being told I looked just like her, grin. I didn't, actually, but probably b/c maybe how I dressed? (Not that I wasn't cute, ha ha) I think you mean the same one I'm thinking of, early 70s?

 

[StevenF]

Does anyone have an idea about the over-abundance of rams horn snails & if that would be enough to cause problems?

IN general I don't htink they will have much affect on PH other than they also need calcium and magnesium and do produce a small amount of CO2. If you don't have enough water movement you might have low oxygen and high CO2 values. So you might want to try increasing or altering the flow pattern. But other than that nothing else comes mind.

 

[day.t]

OK, thanks @StevenF