YELLOW PH!!!!

[fairyrose]

Hello everyone,

55 gallon Tank has been going for quite some time (years( with a large cleaning/moving about a month ago. 1/3 -1/2 water kept, the rest new tapwater. All the fish except the pleco are new, and other than some minor turf issues, and one golden wonder killie committing suicide by jumping out of the tank<no one home-POUT>

Today we were doing some basic testing, checking, and found that the PH is YELLOW less than 6. this is an older test kit, but a test on Tapwater came up a PH of 7 bluegreen, right in the middle. Unfortunately since this is an older testkit, the PH Increaser bottle is empty.... ERRRGHHHH!

is there any other way we can affect the PH, and keep things happy other than a trip to the lfs, Way across town, and dumping lots of chemicals into the tank?

Thanks for any help....

fairyrose
55 gallon tank
2 angelfish
2 flame gourami
2 dwarf gourami
1 turquiose severen
1 red fin shark
1 ruby shark
4 lemon tetras
1 golden wonder killie
1 Large pleco

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Hi

When you say all you fish are new (except the plec), did you put them in at the same time? You should not add that many fish at one as your system will not be able to cope with the increase in waste and food. If you didn't add them all at once (as in leaving 7 days between 4 or so fish) then I don't know what caused it but small water changes every day will help or using Proper ph or something similar. I has a similar problem a couple of weeks ago. My ph went to 6.5 and I used Proper ph to correct it. I know that a lot of people don't like to do this but I felt it was necessary and it worked without any side effects.

Hope it all works out.

 

[fairyrose]

Hi Cheese Specialist,

Well, we started by adding back in the pleco that day, after giving the tank most of the evening to rest.
We added the tetra's, angels, and 2 gourami's the next day, after floating them for a few hrs, with a bit of time inbetween.
the sharks, and severen were put in as purchased<after floating bag> in the last several weeks
we just added the 2 dwarf gourami's and the 2 golden wonders 3 days ago.

We also checked the amonia level. and it's clear less than 0 parts per mil....

Everyone seems healthy now, but the PH level is definitely acidic and i don't want to make everyone sick... I also don't want to dump a bunch of chemicals if i can do a few water changes, etc... and make it better.

Thanks.

fairyrose
55 gallon tank
2 angelfish
2 flame gourami
2 dwarf gourami
1 turquiose severen
1 red fin shark
1 ruby shark
4 lemon tetras
1 golden wonder killie (-1 suicide)
1 Large pleco

 

[Angel Lady]

try baking soda it will raise the ph 2

 

[fairyrose]

try baking soda it will raise the ph 2

Well, how much should we add at a time. 1tsp

I like that idea much better than crazy chemicals.... as long as it won't throw anyone else into a tailspin...

like i said before its a 55 gallon tank.

Thanks!!
fairyrose

 

[Sea_Monster87]

Use PH up

 

[AquaNut]

Hi fairyrose

I urge you not to dump a bunch of phosphates into your tank in the form of pH stabilizers. If your tap water is pH 7ish and your tank is below 6, something is making the water run acidic in your tank. First of all, do a big water change... 30% or so... that should raise your pH somewhat. Then be really vigilant with water changes for the next couple of weeks, measuring your pH after every water change - it should slowly come up ( a MUCH safer way for your fish). I'd also be looking into what is dropping your pH in the tank in the first place. Is your tank planted? Do you use co2, by any chance? How about bogwood? Any wood? Wood releases tanic acids into your water. I'm guessing that if you were filtering with peat or had peat plates under your substrate that you'd have mentioned it. The thing is, unless you have some reason to think your pH crashed overnight, your fish are probably just fine... if you do a few big water changes over the next few days, it should rise for you.

 

[fairyrose]

I urge you not to dump a bunch of phosphates into your tank in the form of pH stabilizers. If your tap water is pH 7ish and your tank is below 6, something is making the water run acidic in your tank. First of all, do a big water change... 30% or so... that should raise your pH somewhat. Then be really vigilant with water changes for the next couple of weeks, measuring your pH after every water change - it should slowly come up ( a MUCH safer way for your fish). I'd also be looking into what is dropping your pH in the tank in the first place. Is your tank planted? Do you use co2, by any chance? How about bogwood? Any wood? Wood releases tanic acids into your water. I'm guessing that if you were filtering with peat or had peat plates under your substrate that you'd have mentioned it. The thing is, unless you have some reason to think your pH crashed overnight, your fish are probably just fine... if you do a few big water changes over the next few days, it should rise for you.

THANKS!!!!
That's what i was thinking might help, but was worried that it might be too little too late, or to taxing on the fish....

we use a new activated charcoal filter(Bio-Bag) and Activated carbon and Ammonia Removing Resin (Ammo-carb) in the filter that sits on the back of the tankwe also have two powerhead water pumps helping to circulate the water that we upgraded when we did the big clean and move<about 1 month ago>

No CO2, no wood, no peat, and no real plants yet....... I'd like to get some floating plants to make the gourami's happy, but haven't researched enough to go buy some yet.

the gravel and rock teraformations have been in the tank for some time. we added a few plastic plants, and inert tank pretties but that's it. The previous inhabitants simply were rather old fish, and weren't replaced as they passed on.
Moving the tank created a really good reason to repopulate and start again.

I think it may have been this way for a while, or slowly changing since the move, since we don't see any major behavior changes/illnesses.

I guess we'll start changing water and hold off on our baking soda or any chemicals and see how it does... We can always add stuff later if we still need it.

Thanks again for everyone's help. I'll let everyone know how things go.

fairyrose

 

[reg2k2]

I'm wondering if the move didn't include a chg in water suppliers? This happened to me..'course I didn't know anything about crashing pH 'til I came here w/ a pH of.. .. 6.0 .
If the problem persists, n u find youself taking a trip to lfs, u might pick up a GH/KH test--measures water hardness...this will tell u if you've the same problem (too low a KH will not hold the pH steady).

 

[thecichlidaddict]

Firstly, I agree with all of the advice that insists you try other methods before adding anything at all to the tank. I only use additives of any kind as a last resort. All I use in my tanks are water, and baking soda for my African cichlids. No salt, no chemicals, none of that stress coat stuff, or whatever nonsense they get people to buy. All you need in a tank is clean, fresh water.


Secondly, if you do need to something to raise the ph and kh, then I can back up the baking soda idea. I use it all the time and it works great. A high kh acts as a buffer to keep the ph from lowering. I use it over products like PH up because it's much cheaper and it works at least as well (I find it more stable). Just be careful with it, it could end up raising it higher then you had planned. At the same time no matter how much you add it won't raise the ph higher then 8.2 or 8.3. The KH will continute to rise though.

There is no set formula as to how much, everybody's water is different. Fill a bin or bucket that holds 5 gallons or so of water. Aerate it over night. This releases the co2 from the water, causing the ph to rise and giving a more accurate result then straight out of the tap. For some people the difference can be quite surprising. Then test the water, and add baking soda half a tsp at a time, testing until you acheive the desired results. You then know how much baking soda to add for every 5 gallons of water.

Cheers!

 

[fairyrose]

Firstly, I agree with all of the advice that insists you try other methods before adding anything at all to the tank. I only use additives of any kind as a last resort. All I use in my tanks are water, and baking soda for my African cichlids. No salt, no chemicals, none of that stress coat stuff, or whatever nonsense they get people to buy. All you need in a tank is clean, fresh water.


Secondly, if you do need to something to raise the ph and kh, then I can back up the baking soda idea. I use it all the time and it works great. A high kh acts as a buffer to keep the ph from lowering. I use it over products like PH up because it's much cheaper and it works at least as well (I find it more stable). Just be careful with it, it could end up raising it higher then you had planned. At the same time no matter how much you add it won't raise the ph higher then 8.2 or 8.3. The KH will continute to rise though.

There is no set formula as to how much, everybody's water is different. Fill a bin or bucket that holds 5 gallons or so of water. Aerate it over night. This releases the co2 from the water, causing the ph to rise and giving a more accurate result then straight out of the tap. For some people the difference can be quite surprising. Then test the water, and add baking soda half a tsp at a time, testing until you acheive the desired results. You then know how much baking soda to add for every 5 gallons of water.

Cheers!

I'm wondering if the move didn't include a chg in water suppliers? This happened to me..'course I didn't know anything about crashing pH 'til I came here w/ a pH of.. .. 6.0 .

Well, it wasn't a long move... about 20 feet... <but for a tank that big, it was PLENTY! The water supply stayed the same...

If the problem persists, n u find youself taking a trip to lfs, u might pick up a GH/KH test--measures water hardness...this will tell u if you've the same problem (too low a KH will not hold the pH steady).

Agreed, I have been combing the posts for the last 6 months, learning more about Ph, ammonia, Kh, etc... and we are getting a Kh test kit Monday.

I have done a 30%water change yesterday, no change.
so today we added a small bit of baking soda and will retest. If it still isn't on the scale we'll do another water change, and perhaps a bit more baking soda. We are waiting about 1-4 hrs after we do anything before we retest, to insure we get the most accurate results. After all, nothing will be completely mixed in this big a tank for at least an hr.

Thanks again for everyone's help. I'll Keep you all posted.

fairyrose