Frustrated =9 ph dropping again

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batang_mcdo

Polypterus
MFK Member
Apr 24, 2006
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Manila
Need help.
My tanks ph dropped again. already had 3 kilo coral chip in my tank. added 3 more kilos. kh/gh tester is not available here
my tank has recycled because of ph crash being more lower than 4.5
still have ammonia problem , thought i was able to fix ph problem when i raised ph vio baking soda and addition of coral chips, now tested at 5 again
i now have 6 kilos of coral chips in the sump.
what could be the cause of this? our tap water comes out at 7.5
I've made almost daily water change due to ammonia.
now when i tested it was 5 again. I added some baking soda and was able to bring it up to 6.5
really frustrating what could be the problem? I've already washed all media before in my filters.
only have a small piece of driftwod left.

any suggestions? kh/gh tester not available here .
tank still haven't fully cycled and ph dropped again :(
 
I don't like chemicals, but you can buy a ph stablizer that will keep it at 7
 
DO NOT USE BUFFERS!! Adding stuff to your tank will not help the issue at all.. infact it worsens it.

A PH Crash happens in a heavilly bufered tank when all the bufers get used up by Hydrogen Ions. This results in a dramatic fall in PH since the hydrogen ions have taken up all the buffering your tank possesses and the acidic nature of the ions shows through. What you are seeing now is what follows if not treated properly. Ammonia levels begin to rise and PH sits around 5.5 you show off the charts readings of ammonia even nitrate, the bacteria that normally convert ammonia to nitrite bascially cease to function. The low PH is sort of a blessing at this point though since it keeps ammonia in its non toxic form.

Adding buffers will not help at all right now. What needs to be done is a good serious cleaning. I don't mean a drastic change either because you'll throw the tank parameters all over the place and kill everything if it's not already dead. Start by doin 10 to 15% water changes daily. During this you'll want to vacuum the substrate very well. If you use bio filtration, wash all the gunk off in the vacuumed water to keep from killing the bacteria whilst removing the gunk. If you use bio balls you will want to wash them very well if they are gunked up to removed the gunk. After a periof of around a week to 10 days you will begin to see things level out. The reason to MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE YOU DO NOT DO BIG CHANGES is because any rise in the PH will allow the ammonia to release and become toxic.. big dissaster. If your Ammonia levels remain high after beginging the water changes you may want to back off a bit.. just a warning. give it some time to let the process catch up and do another change.

Once everything has been restored you'll want to make sure you do frequent regular water changes and mechanical filtration changes or cleaning. The whole reason you are going through this is because over time your tank has built up so much "gunk" that has released hydrogen ions that have taken up your buffer till they could no longer buffer your tank. Just keep up on the maintainance.

Much better explanation of the above can be found here:
http://www.bestfish.com/oldtank.html
 
thanks rivermud,
that might be the case why my tank ph dropped below 4.5
but now i have already cleaned up all the media in my tank
since my tank bacteria seems to have died. i cleaned all the filtermedia, no more gunk.
our tapwater is 7.5 and i don't add anything before. thought my ph was stable. but luckily my silver arowana shed slime and i immediately tested the water. it was below 4.5 even after adding 2 tablespoon baking soda, the ph tester still showed 4.5 which was the lowest. but last week i was able to bring it up to 7.5 by adding baking soda, daily water change and adding 3 kilos crushed corals. but today when i tested it was at 5 again. my silver arowana seems to be more sensitive to bad water.
for ammonia. before i used ammolock. already used up a couple of bottles.
tank still doesn't seem to be cycling well. tomorrow i'll get more ammolock. my tank is quite stocked. so i'm still in panic mode. ammonia still a problem after 2 weeks.
I can't let ammonia rise too much since i have lots of fish in my tank. so i keep changing water to lower ammonia. will this delay cycling?
 
The Ammolock will not remove the ammonia results form your test. Ammolock just prevents the ammonia from turning into its toxic form (laymens description). Read the article link. It's much more well though out than my ramblings and will help you with the "Old Tank Syndrome" ph crashes you are experiencing. If you killed a large part of your bacterial colonies you will have some severe issues re-cycling your tank with a heavy fish load and water changes are the only way to help keep them in check along with reduced feeding. If you have a way to reduce the load on the tank until you can stabilize it I would suggest using it. Otherwise you are in for a lot of work. Odds are you allowed the build-up of bad nasties in the aquarium long enough .. especially with the high fish load that they overcame the buffering capacity of the tank. They tank responded with a drop in ph due to the high acidity of the released ions that were no longered covered by the buffers.. poof super low ph.. super high non toxic as of yet ammonia and nitrate.. Old Tank Syndrome
 
I really don't think that the coral will be able to supply anions at a rate that will allow it to be an effective tank buffer. I would dump it and replace with something more useful....like additional biomedia. pH stabilizers will probably contain phosphate and this can create problems with algae growth. The pH drop is probably being caused by all of the aerobic respiration occurring in your tank. Specifically, both the fish and the bacteria are discharging CO2 and organic acids and this is probably causing the acidification. Of course, CO2 + H2O = carbonic acid. Anyway, for my Dats, I do three things which collectively maintains the appropriate pH:
1. Add Instant Ocean to the water.
2. Perform weekly water changes.
3. Add baking soda to the tank weekly.

I make up my change water in advance in a large, thick-walled rubbish container and spike it with Instant Ocean and baking soda.
 
thanks :) i've added some baking soda to bring up ph.
should i keep adding regularly to keep ph at 7.5?
my tanks aeration is quite good i have lots of surface agitation.
my sump currently has lots of bio media.
I have prepared a 55 gallon drum also as additional filtration , planning to fill up with 300 pcs scrubbies .
 
Every tank is different and you don't want to be adding baking soda needlessly. Here's what I would do:

1. Get the pH established at the desired number.
2. Every day for one week, take a pH reading. This will allow you to determine how rapidly your pH is dropping over a defined period of time.
3. One you have a handle on the dynamics of your pH decline, establish a weekly regimen of baking soda additions to counteract this. For example, you might want to add 1 level teaspoon on Wed and Fri.

Presumably, you have at least a rough idea concerning how much baking soda is required to counteract the current acidification...start there. Also, as stated previoulsy, Instant Ocean contains ingredients that will at least "resist" acidification. If your fish are from an environment in which some mixing with sea water occurs, you may want to consider adding this. Don't forget the weekly water changes.
 
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