Driftwood lowering ph way below. help a poor new fish ower out

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ricey0809

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 6, 2008
112
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new york
Hi everyone i am new here. im 20 years old live in nyc and have taken an interest in fishes. just a few weeks ago i have brought a new fish tank, completey unaware there was such things as "cycle" "ph" or any of those things. i have learned alot these past few days and here is the thing i kinda need advice on.

I brought a 10g tank with a aquaclear 50 filter (water can never be too clean) and a heater. i have gravel a few rocks (no limestone) and a old driftwood that my cousin has used for his very nice 80ish gal for at least 5 years or so.

Now this driftwood if i lay it flat would a inch or 2 less then the size of my tank and the lengh would be around 3 inchs less then the lengh of my tank.
so i would say this driftwood takes up around 25-30% of my whole tank.
i let me tank sit for at least a week then put some chichlids in, the next day it died.... i had no idea what was going on since i am new at this and just thought it must be because my tank isnt cycled yet. si i decided to buy some other cheap fish and in 2 hours it also died. i then started to look up info on what was happening and found out it could be my ph. i brought a ph kit and the test said my ph was below 6.2 (completey yellow) since my test dont show my what yellow is im guessin around 5.0-5.5?
could this be because of my drift wood takes up 30% of the whole tank thats why it is lowing the ph of my water soooooo much. i really LOVE the wood and want to keep it there.
I have heard crushed coral will make the ph higher but the way i have my tank set up right now the gravel matches with the back ground and i dont wanna change it (my filter is also kinda packed so dont think i can fit anything in there)

As of right now i took out the wood and put in 3 firemouths just so it can cycle, my master plan is to get BUCKTOOTH TETRAS in my 10 gal tank once the fire mouths cycle my tank , then give my firemouths away cause the tetras will prolly eat them (the firemouths are babys)

i know tetras can handle low ph water so i am planning to put back the wood after my tank is cycled but i mean... 5.0-5.5 ph is really low... can they even handle that?

any advice would be really realyl useful. alittle info on my tank as of right now

10 gal
aqaraclear 50
smart heaters (turns off if its too hot)
rocks (nothing that would alter the ph)
decent size drift wood that would take up 30% of the whole tank
*i really really wanna keep the drift wood after my tank is cycled and also wanna add plants to it too.*
im not planning on having more then 5-6 tetras and will feed them good so they dont turn on each other.

do you think i should do somthing like get limestone AND put the wood in there at the same time so they cancel each other out and the PH will be normal like somwhere near 7.0.

ty for your time people :)

*not sure if i should of posted here or in "Setup and Filtration"
 
No limestone. You need to cycle the tank bad! Using Fm's is not the best idea because they will die also. First you need to get rid of the Fm's to the store you got them from or a friend that will give them back. Go get some pure ammonia or a more hardy fish (I do not condone fishy cycling) Get the ammonia up to .5ppm and wait. When it gets down to .2ppm add ammonia again to .5ppm. Do this until your test show no ammonia after you add .5ppm and wait 18-24 hours. Then you will have noticed the arrival of nitrites and nitrates. The only way to remove nitrates is water changes. So when your cycle is done and your fish are in, you will need to start conducting water changes to keep your nitrates in check. Shoot for .10ppm and do a change when they get much past .25ppm....


The Ph....What is the ph of your tap? Check this before we can move on.
 
If you can't find pure ammonia you can also just add a little fish food to the water to give the bacteria something to feed on. You can also pick up some bacteria starter from most pet stores to help establish your tank a little faster. As far as PH I agree you have to first find out what your tap water is. Also not sure where you get your water from but make sure you don't have chlorine in your water.
 
:welcome: to MFK!!! :thumbsup:

What kind of test kit did you get? I would suggest a complete fresh water test kit. I use API with the test tubes and the 5-in-1 dip strips from API and Mardel. Test your tap water and research the fish you have see what there natural condions are. I keep SA cichlids and my tap is around 8.0 PH and GH is about 12. Not good for SA's so I have to use Seachems neutral buffer. It will drop my PH to 6.8-7.2 since I don't own a RO system. Anyway, like Spizz said, test your tap water and keep testing your tank BEFORE adding anymore fish. A ten gal. is going to be very hard to upkeep. The larger the tank the easier to maintain and the slower your tank parameters fluctuate.

Just a little advice, buy your supplies from the net. A lot cheaper if you buy in bulk.
 
im using all api test kits right now my tap water is 7.0 and i have heard Firemouths are actually really hardy fish , thats why i brought them. i just woke up and tested the water, it seems like my ph is actually down a bit. i used baking powder 2 days ago to make my ph from 5.5 - 7.0 so i can put the fire mouths in not knowing i was surpose to use (baking soda) now i still have some white powder in my tank. pure ammoia is hard to get i have looked for it in 4-5 of my local stores both hardware and super market. only place they seem to have it is in "ace's hardware stores which is no where close to where i live. and if i order it it comes in 6 packs so thats out of the question. and also after the tank cycles and i get my bucktooth tetras would it be ok to put my driftwood back in or will that big piece of wood be too much to tank for my tank size (10 gal) or would i be able to get limestone with the wood. i think i heard somwhere if the PH lvl are too low i wont be able to cycle?
 
oh i changed my water yesterday to get rid of the power if your woundering (25% ish) i still have alittle that has settled on the gravel but it doesnt look at good, woudering if i can do another water change. jusyt scared that too many water changes will delay my cycle.
 
ricey0809;1420647; said:
im using all api test kits right now my tap water is 7.0 and i have heard Firemouths are actually really hardy fish , thats why i brought them. i just woke up and tested the water, it seems like my ph is actually down a bit. i used baking powder 2 days ago to make my ph from 5.5 - 7.0 so i can put the fire mouths in not knowing i was surpose to use (baking soda) now i still have some white powder in my tank. pure ammoia is hard to get i have looked for it in 4-5 of my local stores both hardware and super market. only place they seem to have it is in "ace's hardware stores which is no where close to where i live. and if i order it it comes in 6 packs so thats out of the question. and also after the tank cycles and i get my bucktooth tetras would it be ok to put my driftwood back in or will that big piece of wood be too much to tank for my tank size (10 gal) or would i be able to get limestone with the wood. i think i heard somwhere if the PH lvl are too low i wont be able to cycle?
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Wow, I'm kind of lost in everything you've done so far and everything you've added. Please tell me the fm are not in the tank with the baking soda? Baking soda pulls the oxygen out of the water, and is actually used as a means of fish euthanization. :eek: If I were you, I'd start this tank over. The more and more you add to your tank, the more and more unstable it gets.
 
Don't worry about pH until after your tank has cycled. Water changes do not delay the cycle. Even with large water changes there still is ammonia and nitrites present. Plus the health of the fish greatly improves with the W/Cs
 
pdbrady;1420676; said:
Wow, I'm kind of lost in everything you've done so far and everything you've added. Please tell me the fm are not in the tank with the baking soda? Baking soda pulls the oxygen out of the water, and is actually used as a means of fish euthanization. :eek: If I were you, I'd start this tank over. The more and more you add to your tank, the more and more unstable it gets.
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Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is commonly used as a water buffer....Even salt in a high enough concentration will kill fish.
 
lol ok ok, about a week ago i got my 10 gal tank. put in the gravel filter heater rocks and DRIFTWOOD. i let it sit as i added stress-zime abd cycle to it everyday. after alittle under a week later i decide to add fish in there and the fish died a a day after. i took the dead fishes out and added feeders to the tank, they also died (2 hours later). i THEN found out about ph and stuff and brought a testkit and tested my water. My water was at a PH lvl lower then the charts of the test kit (below 6.2) the color was pure yellow so im guessin 5.0-5.5 ph. at this point i had no fishes in there since they had all died. i TOOK out the DRIFTWOOD.
i then heard adding a very little bit of baking soda would rise the PH lvl (well the placed that said that said "baking powder") so i took alittle baking powder and put it in (my tank at this point was still fishless). i later foundout it was baking SODA and not powder, i then did a water change to take out mostof the powder white stuff (i took out most but couldnt get out all). i then checked the p again and it was good enuff for chidlids (it was at around 7.0). so i went out and brought 3 fire mouths and put them in yesterday, they seem to be doing OK now (one active one eatting and everything, one that looks weaker then the others and doesnt eat, and the small one that gets picked on but the active one a bit and eats little). my ph right now has droped again to like 6.2-6.4
 
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