Frustrated =9 ph dropping again

[batang_mcdo]

today i added baking sodas 3 times. each time it goes up after 2-3 hours it drops from 6.4 - 4.5
I;ve removed my canister filter. can old ceramic rings cause ph to drop?

 

[batang_mcdo]

Ammonia is acidic that is what's dropping your pH

Did you test your tap water for Ammonia?

thanks. I tested and tap water doesn't have ammonia.
how many tablespoon of baking soda will it take to raise ph from 4.5 to 6.5 in a 300 gallon tank?
could it be i'm dosing too little baking soda?

 

[batang_mcdo]

normally how long will baking soda last?
my tank is a 300 gal and I was able to bring up ph to 7.5
I removed the canister filter. also took ou tthe small piece of driftwood in my tank.

 

[brianp]

I am starting to suspect that this tank may simply be overstocked and/or underfiltered. The chronic ammonia presence indicates that fish urination is exceeding the capacity of the biomedia to assimilate it. Also, if you've removed all organic material from your tank, then it has to be the discharge of CO2 (among other things) by the fish....which then forms carbonic acid, which is responsible for the pH drop. Fish will also excrete a variety of organic acids from their digestive tracts when they defecate and this can also lower the pH. It may be worthwhile to agitate the water vigorously. This will improve gas exchange at the surface and should blow off some of the CO2.

Ammonia can exist in two forms...ammonia and ammonium. When the fish urinate, some of the "ammonium" will act as an acid and release H+, which will lower the pH. This may be contributing to the pH drop and is further indicative of too many fish.

 

[Rivermud]

Precisely. Overstocked underfiltered tanks can begin to show signs of what is called Old Tank Syndrome very fast. The idea being that there is an excess of bio products which overrun the buffers ability to counteract/buffer them. This shows itself by drastically dropping the PH of the tank because of the acidic discharge in the tank. Re-buffering the tank is nearly useless as there is not a strong enough colony of bacteria to prevent the original process from re-occuring. And I apologize for the above article reversing Ammonia and Ammonium. The fact is still true though that ammonia is more toxic at higher PH levels. The basic problem he has is similar to new tank syndrome in that he has not the capacity of Nitrosonomas to convert the ammonia he has to nitrites then nitrates. He also has no ability to continue to buffer the overload. Continually adding baking soda to improve his buffering will only serve to release a bit of the less toxic ammonia to the more toxic variety and when his bio load exceeds the buffer which is nearly instantyl he returns to an acidic state. Thus stressing the fish even more than they already are. He needs to perform water changes in small scale frequently over an extrended time. He must also improve his bacterial colony which may mean he'll need to invest in a better or even another bio filter. Once his filters can cover the bio load he has already he will go through a full cycling of the aquarium.. none of this is an easy fix.. certainly not one that you can throw baking soda at or ammolock.. His tap water already has buffers built in and by doing water changes at say 20% he removes 20% of the ammonia and nitrates and other waste products and introduces natural buffers found in his water.. this is a small change not likely to over stress the fish but care must be taken if the ammonia levels continue to rise.. done daily with good bio filtration he will eventually get the aquarium back into a solid state.. till then he'll continue to experience his problems and eventually overstress his fish and they will die.

 

[Merbeast]

Need help!!
when i got home. my silver arowana has white slime all over his body
its commed with 3 superreds.
I tested for ammonia and it was 1 mg/l .
i must have overfed them with mp yesterday.
any advice? how much water should i change?

help please.

currently making 30% water change and using anti chlorine and Aqutan.
ph is lower than 6 i think. tested and its much more yellow than my test kit can detect which is 6.0

Fish load is 2 12 inch asian arowanas ,. 1 20 inch asian aro. 1 20 inch silver aro.
and 10 adult silver dollars.
filtration is 1 eheim 2250. 1 4 ft Overhead filter and a 15 gal sump tank.
bio media are ceramic rings foam bio balls and filter floss.


must have overfed yesterday

need advice.

Its 10:"30 pm here and there are no open lfs
any thing i can do? after changing 30% water the ammonia seems to still be the same?

This is from the thread "SOS!! Ammonia!!"
The question that was never asked is "how big is the tank?" 2 12" arows and a 20" arow are a lot of bioload. I am guessing somewhere around a 100gal tank?

 

[247Plants]

normally how long will baking soda last?
my tank is a 300 gal and I was able to bring up ph to 7.5
I removed the canister filter. also took ou tthe small piece of driftwood in my tank.

300 gallons

 

[batang_mcdo]

Hi,

thanks, need help again!!
now my ph is at 9 when i removed the canister filter and old ceramic rings, the ph didn't drop but when i retested it was at 9 now
problem is tank is not cycled.
how do i safely lower the ph? now that i can't make huge water change
since tap water is only at 7.5
i'm currently using ammolock

think the ph drop was caused by my canister and old media which i have already cleaned. but still cause my ph to drop really fast.
I'm going to test the media in the canister if it indeed causes ph to drop

 

[batang_mcdo]

was finally able to get a kh test kit and our tapwaters kh is at 3.
not sure why ph in my tank before droped so quickly.
but right now its at 7.5 after i disconnected the canister. could it be the old ceramic rings in the ca

 

[batang_mcdo]

really frustrated today. tested ph and it was at 7.5
kh at 0 , our tapwater ph is 7.5 and kh is 3
I just did a big water change yesterday. been doing daily water changes for the past few weeks.
at this rate my tank won't finish its cycle