PH Drop, common problem in every ray tank?

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Tor-Eriik

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Jan 3, 2010
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1 of my rays and now some of the discus were behaving a little strange some days ago, so i did a checkup on nitrate, ph and nitrite, nitrate at 40-50, 0 nitrite BUT PH 5!! i was thinking the ph test kit was out of date, so i did a check on my tap water(wich is 7,5), and it was still 7,5 , meaning there were no problem with the test kit.

Does everyone out there holding multiple rays in 1 tank, have to buffer the ph becouse of the heavy load with feeding and everything? I have my rays in a 1400 gallon system were i change 200 galls a day with drip. Powerbead filter + 2x fx5, so its pretty heavily filtrated.
 
the bacteria in the filter are probably consuming the minerals in the water as part of their metabolizing out the ammonia etc.
you need to do even larger water changes more often with that large bioload.
Do you have conductivity or TDS readings?
 
You may need to look into your water changes schedule, the larger volume at lesser interval may be necessary.

David W is correct, the lack of mineral as they're consumed by the bio BB to thrive is what cause a drop in PH (turning water acidic)

Think of it like this, your fish produces waste, your bio BB consume the good minerals (what keeps your alkalinity in check) to process the fish waste. Alkalinity is what keeps your PH stable. I measure how much drips to do by measuring PH daily until I find the right amount, on the 600 with 8 rays, I do 100 gal per day to keep alakalinity stable (in turn keeping PH stable)

stan
 
You really need to check your Kh, which will tell you the buffering capacity of your water.

Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda) will increase the Kh and thereby help maintain a more stable pH - I add it to my ray tanks at water changes and then during the course of the week as necessary because my source water Kh is very low.

Before adding any Baking Soda, however, you need to check for Ammonia (Ammonium when your pH is <7) and Nitrite as it's possible for the filter to go dormant when the pH drops that low. If you have Ammonia in the tank and use Baking Soda to raise the pH back above 7 you can wipe out your tank in short order. Conversely, Nitrite is more dangerous to fish when the pH is <7 but a few teaspoons of any salt you like (table salt, kosher salt, aquarium salt) will neutralize the effect of Nitrite.

Ignore the people who come to this thread later and tell you raising the pH will shock your fish - they're wrong, it's raising Gh that will cause problems. You can easily and safely raise the pH using Baking Soda as long as there is no ammonia in the water. I do it all the time and my fish never exhibit any adverse reaction.

Considering the size and investment of your big tank, a continuous pH monitor might be a valuable and relatively minor (<US$100) investment so that you can get a good eye on how your pH changes over time.
 
I have put alot of shellsand in the sump now, so its in order now, i also did that in my previous pond. My KH is not even readable in the tap, so thats the issue i gues, bin keeping for so long now you forget the simplest things. Now the PH is up on 6,5, raising slowley. I have a 150 gallon sump, so my new routine is to pump the water out of there so just the pump is under water, so now the water that comes in, is pure, and not just mixed. I dont really have anything in my sump exept for heaters. Its ment to be a pup tank.

There has not bin any major behaviour issue, its just 3-4 of my discus(They might just have gotten the notorious gill worms that ruins the discus hobby nowadays) and 1 of my 9 rays, They all eat tho. 2 other pairs of discus even lays egg every week. They are F1 Green Tefe, they like the low ph?;)

My TDS reading is 140. Tap water TDS is 120 last time i checked.(can measure later)

Every 2 weeks im doing backwash on my PB filter, and then changes 400 gallons. Its kind of a new scheduale, so maybe i will see some effects when i do it more often.
 
Did a new TDS test now when i was feeding, the TDS\PPM in the tank was 125 and the TDS in the tap water was 100, seems like the emptying sump\fill fresh is already working.
 
Did a new TDS test now when i was feeding, the TDS\PPM in the tank was 125 and the TDS in the tap water was 100, seems like the emptying sump\fill fresh is already working.
 
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Agree with all the wisdom above. Also check your tap water after it has stood for 2 hours, I wonder if it is naturally dropping quickly.

When you say emptied sump I assume you left the old bio media I there?

You may want to look at some form of calcium reactor to allow the sump to do the filtering and the reactors to do the buffering.

My aquatronica computer plots a graph of ph and you can set audible alarms if the parameters shift (it can even send you a text) if you get really advanced you can get it to turn on a drip if the ph falls.
 
Its not a sump-sump its just a tank under the maintank with heaters and space for pups(to allow them to be on the same system) .This week i added shells in there for buffer. About letting the tap water sit, i will do that:) So this is not a common problem? I remember ive had this problem on all of my ray tanks, was just assuming that this tank was so heavy filtered and big volume, that it would not become a problem. (used shells on all the other tanks aswell)


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