Rocks causing my fish stress

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
TwoTankAmin said:
It is not so easy to drop pH by one full point quickly without actually adding acid to a tank. I know I have done this intentionally in my altum angel tank on several occasions.

That leaves only two potential explanations:
1. You messed up the test somehow and the pH is actually higher.
2. Something else got into the tank water that can lower pH.

To drop the pH one must lower the KH or else add enough acid to overcome it.
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Thank you for the help. I was just on edge about it after recently losing a grammodes and thought it was better to be safe than sorry. I have done a water change and am thinking about adding the rocks again and measuring water hardness to check if anything had actually changed. Is there anything else you would recommend?
 
aussieman57 said:
Just curious how much did you use? Did you just put a couple of drops on 1 of the rocks to test?
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Each rock was different. Some reacted with it so I binned them. I used a small drop on each one to test. I thought this may be the problem but wasn’t sure.
 
All of the rocks shown are of volcanic origin, and from what I see, most are andesitic and a couple towards granitic, and none are true basaltic rocks. None of them are carbonate rocks. They should NOT be the cause of any pH drops. Something else is going on.
 
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As a rule of thumb rocks that will work to change pH are softer rocks, You can often crumble them or scratch off powder. One the other hand river rocks are pretty hard and need to be eroded over a long time. Not all soft rocks will react to acid.

Rocks that contain calcium carbonate can erode when they encounter acids.
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Buffering capacity refers to water's ability to keep the pH stable as acids or bases are added. pH and buffering capacity are intertwined with one another; although one might think that adding equal volumes of an acid and neutral water would result in a pH halfway in between, this rarely happens in practice. If the water has sufficient buffering capacity, the buffering capacity can absorb and neutralize the added acid without significantly changing the pH. Conceptually, a buffer acts somewhat like a large sponge. As more acid is added, the "sponge" absorbs the acid without changing the pH much. The "sponge's" capacity is limited however; once the buffering capacity is used up, pH changes more rapidly as acids are added.......

In freshwater aquariums, most of water's buffering capacity is due to carbonates and bicarbonates. Thus, the terms "carbonate hardness" (KH), "alkalinity" and "buffering capacity" are used interchangeably. Although technically not the same things, they are equivalent in practice in the context of fishkeeping. Note: the term "alkalinity" should not be confused with the term "alkaline". Alkalinity refers to buffering, while alkaline refers to a solution that is a base (e.g., pH > 7).
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While most use vinegar to test rocks, because we have an in-ground pool, we also have a gallon jug of muriatic acid. I use this to clean the white build-up from harder water that can et all over tanks. I do not have this problem, but some of the used tanks I have bought did. I also use the acid to lower the pH in the Altum tank. Muriatic acid is dangerous and should not to be used if you do not know what you are doing.
 
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