In light of recent events i decided to test the water quality of my 150g.....everything was fine except my ph is around 6.4.......is this a major problem.....i'm not sure why it is......the rest of my tanks are all at 7.2 and my tap water is also 7.2.......i do have a few pieces of bogwood but not enough in my opinion to drop the ph that low......also i'm not running peat in any of my filters......the tank currently houses a few ca/sa cichlids and a few bichirs......all of my water changes come directly from the tap......should i be concerned with this all the fish seem fine and have been happy in their for awhile
Low ph......major threat????
- Thread starter FormulatedFire
- Start date
is the PH constant? if it is, its better to leave it alone than try to make it go higher.
Its the ph swings that can kill your fish. One reason why its lower than tap is because of the dissolved organic waste coming from the fishes inside your tank.
Try doing a thourough substrate cleaning along with your filter pads ( make sure you dont use tapwater ) . Do you have driftwood or any other wood based decor in your tank? that also lowers the ph.
Good luck and keep us updated.
Its the ph swings that can kill your fish. One reason why its lower than tap is because of the dissolved organic waste coming from the fishes inside your tank.
Try doing a thourough substrate cleaning along with your filter pads ( make sure you dont use tapwater ) . Do you have driftwood or any other wood based decor in your tank? that also lowers the ph.
Good luck and keep us updated.
if your fishes have been living in that tank for a long time with no problems. don't worry about it. if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it. for 5 years, my pH has been 6.0, maybe less because my test kit doesn't read lower than 6.0, and all my arowanas, severums, uaru's, hybrid cichlids, giant goraumi, flower horns, and catfishes have been fine. i never had a fish die from water conditions.
The pH is probably lower than your other tanks due to a higher bio load. As stated above, this is not necessarily a bad thing as long as it stays constant, so I'd suggest keeping an eye on it for a while before doing anything. If it's bothering you, you can slowly add coral chips to the bio media area in your filtration system. This raises pH, is a bio filtration media (it has quite a high surface area), and is also meant to buffer your pH against sudden swings.
Just my 2c..
Just my 2c..
there isnt to big of a bio load in my opinion.......right now there is 2-3" gt... 4-5" jd....2" jag, 2 senegals, 1 ropefish.....in the 150.....for filtration i'm running a fluval 404 and xp3......i'm assuming its pretty constant since the fish have been in there since november or so