My water PH is at 5, why is this so?

[Red_Belly_Pacu]

My ammonia is at 0, nitrite is at 0 and my nitrate is at an acceptable range. Why is my PH at 5? I know that people say don't put chemicals in to make the PH higher because of a more stable PH is better than a unstable one.

Is there a reason why my PH is so low? Also, my other tanks, the PH is not that low like this particular tank.

 

[Fitzie]

That's pretty low. Add some crushed coral to it and it will raise it some and still keep it stable.

 

[tyndall72]

Damn that is low lol

 

[squint]

Soft water and/or lots of feeding.

 

[knifegill]

Also, certain fish like chaca chaca naturally lower the pH in a tank.

 

[schall]

Are you using well water? We moved from the city using lake Houston PH 7.8 to 8 then moved to the country off a well now we are at 6.6. Different aquifers can very the PH level.

 

[12 Volt Man]

sometimes pH can be low from 'old tank syndrome' which is too much fish waste/food not being compensated by enough water changes.

or, it can be from wood like mopani wood that leaches acids into the water.

I assume you are regularly water changing this tank?

do you have any driftwood?

as mentioned, your raw water may be quite low in pH to begin with if it is well water.

 

[Red_Belly_Pacu]

sometimes pH can be low from 'old tank syndrome' which is too much fish waste/food not being compensated by enough water changes.

or, it can be from wood like mopani wood that leaches acids into the water.

I assume you are regularly water changing this tank?

do you have any driftwood?

as mentioned, your raw water may be quite low in pH to begin with if it is well water.

I am thinking it might be my old worn out bio media in my xp3. I had those things in for a while.

 

[Zander_The_RBP]

I am thinking it might be my old worn out bio media in my xp3. I had those things in for a while.

bio media does not wear out nor would it drop the pH even if it did



you have a serious amount of decay going on in your tank coupled with low pH / KH from the water source



maybe add some crushed coral to the filter to buff it up to atleast 6 i'd say. 5 is dangerously acidic (each number down on the pH scale is actualy 10X as acidic as the previous one so think 5 is 100x as acidic as 7 and 10 x as acidic as 6).

 

[kdrun76]

What are you using to test it? My fish tank kits don't go that low.