Uncontrollable Ph

[walrustaco]

Hello... any thoughts on my problem are greatly appreciated.

About a year ago I had a functioning 55g freshwater tank, until my roommate started adding tons of fish without regard to the current setup. Eventually I had snails and planaria, my fish died, probably from stress, and I decided to start again.

So I cleaned out the tank with a 3% bleach solution, filled and drained it about ten times, put in new gravel, and began to let it run without any fish. Unfortunately the planaria came back, so I drained it and left it empty for two months. The planaria still returned, even when I used boiling water and freezing water, so I used a variety of aquarium "worm poisons" sold at the fish store over the next three months, and eventually they were gone, so I drained it ten more times, re-filled it, and let it run.

My problem now is that my Ph drops wildly once I do a water change. I have a strange setup which came with the tank: gravity pushes the water over a wall and into a filter that leads to a sub-tank. From there, it is filtered again and pumped back into the tank. I also have another small three-stage filter hanging on top of the tank. Whenever I do a water change (I don't touch the filters- yet), the Ph will drop, often below 5.5. Yesterday I did a water change, added de-chorinator, stress xyme, less than a half-handful of aquarium salt, and some Ph Up, and this morning the Ph dropped from 8 to about 5.5 in a few hours. My tap water is about 7 and I've added some rocks that the store told me raise the Ph, but have clouded up the tank a great deal. I only change about 1/6 of the water and I gravel up any dirt. So far, every time I do a change, it puts my fish to the brink of death- I've lost eight balloon mollies so far, which aside from two algae eaters, are the only fish I have in the tank. Now I'm down to one molly and two algae eaters.

Any thoughts on what's causing this? Maybe the "worm poison" from before or the new black-colored gravel? I never had this problem before, and the stores by me are stumped...

Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[andshimmy]

Have you tested your KH? A buffer/reserve of alkalinity will resist pH swings.
I have never used ph Up. If I did and it didn't buffer, then I would phone the company up. Maybe you have to add more.

 

[ZebraDanioFan]

first thing i would do here is to completely empty out your tank and start from the beginning....do not use the ph up because these chemicals will only cause more problems
what kind of filter are you running?
your probably gonna have to play around with the gh and kh with some baking soda and salt and see where that takes ur tap water ph

 

[MoneyMitch]

Hello... any thoughts on my problem are greatly appreciated.

About a year ago I had a functioning 55g freshwater tank, until my roommate started adding tons of fish without regard to the current setup. Eventually I had snails and planaria, my fish died, probably from stress, and I decided to start again.

So I cleaned out the tank with a 3% bleach solution, filled and drained it about ten times, put in new gravel, and began to let it run without any fish. Unfortunately the planaria came back, so I drained it and left it empty for two months. The planaria still returned, even when I used boiling water and freezing water, so I used a variety of aquarium "worm poisons" sold at the fish store over the next three months, and eventually they were gone, so I drained it ten more times, re-filled it, and let it run.

My problem now is that my Ph drops wildly once I do a water change. I have a strange setup which came with the tank: gravity pushes the water over a wall and into a filter that leads to a sub-tank. From there, it is filtered again and pumped back into the tank. I also have another small three-stage filter hanging on top of the tank. Whenever I do a water change (I don't touch the filters- yet), the Ph will drop, often below 5.5. Yesterday I did a water change, added de-chorinator, stress xyme, less than a half-handful of aquarium salt, and some Ph Up, and this morning the Ph dropped from 8 to about 5.5 in a few hours. My tap water is about 7 and I've added some rocks that the store told me raise the Ph, but have clouded up the tank a great deal. I only change about 1/6 of the water and I gravel up any dirt. So far, every time I do a change, it puts my fish to the brink of death- I've lost eight balloon mollies so far, which aside from two algae eaters, are the only fish I have in the tank. Now I'm down to one molly and two algae eaters.

Any thoughts on what's causing this? Maybe the "worm poison" from before or the new black-colored gravel? I never had this problem before, and the stores by me are stumped...

Thanks for your thoughts!

didnt even have to fully read your walllllll of text there, First off let me start by saying using chems to stabilize your ph is going to cause you more headache than your planaria. after 24 hrs you need to add more ph chem to keep it stable, too much of a headache to mess with.

The reason your ph drops is because you more than likely have something in the tank that is leeching into your water causing you ph to rise. if you are adding ANY chemicals to your tank, STOP. all you need is a QUALITY water conditioner and weekly w/c and all will be well. to me it sounds if like your gh/kh is very low AKA soft water which means you have a very small buffering capacity which would cause even the smallest thing to throw your ph out of whack. do this, take EVERYTHING in the aquarium that isnt alive get any kind of household vinegar and pour it onto EVERYTHING, then hold it up to your ear. if you hear a fizzing sound THAT is your problem take it out of your water or you will continue to have ph problems.

Money

after fully reading your post after i posted i found your problem,

I can guarantee you it is a low buffering cap, you add ph up in the night and because you have such a low buffering cap you cause your ph to Crash resulting in a low ph overnight. this will certainly kill fish your lucky to have the fish that are alive now. in experience and ph altering chems are the #2 cause of fish loss.

 

[FishStrings]

Tap water is going to raise or lower your PH every time. Condition the water before you add it to neutralize chlorine before adding it. At the end of every water change, add proper PH powder. This will set it to a desired level every single time. I use proper PH 7.0. Every time it sets my PH to 7.0 after a tap water add.

 

[always4lora]

Tap water is going to raise or lower your PH every time. Condition the water before you add it to neutralize chlorine before adding it. At the end of every water change, add proper PH powder. This will set it to a desired level every single time. I use proper PH 7.0. Every time it sets my PH to 7.0 after a tap water add.

Tap water shouldn't play with the ph much and it should stay around the same, if it fluctuates a lot get in contact with the water board.

 

[the biffster]

new substrate by any chance if you have a liquid test
kit first test your tap water find out the pH of that
right clean test tube fresh tap water in test tube add a few bits
of substrate and now do the test and then see what the pH reads
if the pH is lower than your tap water then you have found your
problem i dont think it your tap water it somthing in the tank

 

[raptorrex]

Tap water is going to raise or lower your PH every time. Condition the water before you add it to neutralize chlorine before adding it. At the end of every water change, add proper PH powder. This will set it to a desired level every single time. I use proper PH 7.0. Every time it sets my PH to 7.0 after a tap water add.

Tap water shouldn't play with the ph much and it should stay around the same, if it fluctuates a lot get in contact with the water board.

CO2 added by water companies, can lower the ph of tap water from 8-7ph (one increment). its effect reduces over time. (go called "gassing off"). but swings caused by this, are not uncommon.

 

[Mikaila31]

Tap water is going to raise or lower your PH every time. Condition the water before you add it to neutralize chlorine before adding it. At the end of every water change, add proper PH powder. This will set it to a desired level every single time. I use proper PH 7.0. Every time it sets my PH to 7.0 after a tap water add.

Tap water shouldn't play with the ph much and it should stay around the same, if it fluctuates a lot get in contact with the water board.

CO2 added by water companies, can lower the ph of tap water from 8-7ph (one increment). its effect reduces over time. (go called "gassing off"). but swings caused by this, are not uncommon.

They don't add CO2. CO2 is a by-product of a few different reactions. CO2 does not effect most tap water. Its in all water, but normally to a low degree/natural amount. It is generally regional or limited to specific aquifers. It would not make since for a water company to add CO2, as a acid it will damage pipes and by making the water more acidic it will dissolve more minerals into the water. Out gassing of CO2 will then lead to mineral deposits which is also bad for pipes.

 

[Bignose]

They do add acid to the water, just to minimize sedimentation in the lines, especially in places with hard water. Just because something is "acidic" doesn't mean it will eat away at anything. Soda is acidic, but doesn't eat away at the aluminum in cans. The type of acid is important. A lot of water is conveyed by copper pipes -- and copper doesn't react-with non-oxidizing acids. Copper is quite safe in hydrochloric acid (a strong acid), for example. A lot of water is also conveyed by plastic PVC pipes, that also aren't going to be affected by weak acids.