i have a 20 long tank with just a couple of sword tails, dolmation molly, and spotted cory's. my tank has been running for 3 weeks now with a piece of drift wood that had started growing little white spots around some areas. after doing some research i think that it is a decaying matter of some sort and i took it out completely and replaced the area with some stone slabs that i found outside and boiled them for like 15 hrs. this was done on 4/12/12. since then things have been going aq little bit more smoothly i have been doing everything to try to raise the PH NATURALLY ( throwing in some ferns and java moss, i have done one 25% water change with a gravel vac) both my nitrate levels (NO2- & NO3-) are perfect, but the ammonia levels are a little high around 2.0 ppm and the pH went from 6.0 to around neutral - 7.2, can anyone help me with trying to get a steady levels with in my tank?
Need Help With the pH levels in my tank
- Thread starter smokeyy3929
- Start date
your tank is still cycling... ammonia should be 0 what this means is your ph is likely to flux abit... but certain stones will naturally raise your ph.. ime a steady stable ph no matter how high or low is ideal unless for specific species. once your tank if fully cycled your going to get a better base line of your general ph levels ect. to maintain higher ph i use crushed coral in bags in my filters, a little goes a long way. your species would do fine anywhere from 6.5 to 8.0 so they arent particulary picky, and unless you are getting ph fluxes after 3 monthes adding cc might help as it buffers your gh/kh which stabalize your ph. but i would do more research on this before doing it as with everything else, has ups and downs.
here is another thing, i know my tank is still cycling right now and i didnt want to do a gravel vac 25% water change at least for a month since i started the tank. but i had to as advised from a local aquarium store, i mean their tactics have been working and slowly paying off, i still have the drift wood and i think i am going to boil it to kill off the bacteria and throw it in a separate 10 gallon for my mother. what kind of plants could i throw in the tank to add the the natural look for the fish, i have some java moss and a fern that is over a foot long ( have no clue how it got so big) but it seems to be doing well in the tank.
Questions:
so what kind of plants could i add that are easy to take care of and suitable for my fish (sword tails, dolmation molly, spotted cory)?
how should i treat my drift wood with decaying matter on it (maybe food decay or wood decay)?
Questions:
so what kind of plants could i add that are easy to take care of and suitable for my fish (sword tails, dolmation molly, spotted cory)?
how should i treat my drift wood with decaying matter on it (maybe food decay or wood decay)?
low light spectrum plants... crypts would be good ormother larger leafed plants.. mollies are herbevorous and will shredd most stem plant species.
as for the wood ive found dw always grows stuff if i lack a pleco ormother algae eater type in my tank, plecos will actually chew on the wood and keep it clean as well as supplimentbtheir fed diet. you can also use a stiff brush and scrubb it down good, but it will liekly continue to grow stuff.
as for the wood ive found dw always grows stuff if i lack a pleco ormother algae eater type in my tank, plecos will actually chew on the wood and keep it clean as well as supplimentbtheir fed diet. you can also use a stiff brush and scrubb it down good, but it will liekly continue to grow stuff.
a bag of crushed coral in ur filter will keep the ph at around neutral... and driftwood will keep it at a lower level like 5 or 6ppm
@ messesb25
i could do crush coral because i do my own mix of carbon inserts (just threw in an ammonia remover in with the carbon in the little insert baggie) i run the Aqua clear 50 that uses that 3 part filtration system, what part should i should throw them in?
i could do crush coral because i do my own mix of carbon inserts (just threw in an ammonia remover in with the carbon in the little insert baggie) i run the Aqua clear 50 that uses that 3 part filtration system, what part should i should throw them in?