Hi bro, need some advice... A few months back just got my chilli red aro n everything is going well until 2 weeks back i notice my ph which shows in the PH meter is dropping so tot that filtration too dirty then took out the coral chips n ceramics to wash mistake lah i wash with tap water so i supposed bacterial died then bought the API stress Zyme for bacterial growth ph doesnt seems to improve. keeps dropping till it stays stagnant around 4.1 to 4.30 max. Now currently took out everything in the sump tank to dry, hopefully kills watever bad bacterial still around. But funny thing is even when there is nothing in the sump tank PH still drops to 5.5 after 6hrs n keeps dropping... this is the first time i came across such thing really at a loss of wat to do and wat is wrong... tested the tap water ph is 7.2. can anyone advise me? or anyone came across this and if u do how to rectify this problem?
PH keeps dropping in my aro tank
- Thread starter berdyap
- Start date
I'm not a fan of Equilibrium, it's a Band-Aid. You need to find the solution. When the Ph is dropping, you got to look for a few different things;
-What's the water Ph and GH/KH of your source water? If the water has a low buffer, the Ph will drop quicker
-How big the tank is compared to the fish, a big fish in a small body of water drops the Ph with it's waste, no matter how big your filtration is.
-Do you have good aeration/lots of surface agitation? If not, then carbon dioxide hangs around in the water and bonds with waste to form carbonic acid, which drops the Ph.
-Is there left over food? Food breaking down further drops Ph...
-What's the water Ph and GH/KH of your source water? If the water has a low buffer, the Ph will drop quicker
-How big the tank is compared to the fish, a big fish in a small body of water drops the Ph with it's waste, no matter how big your filtration is.
-Do you have good aeration/lots of surface agitation? If not, then carbon dioxide hangs around in the water and bonds with waste to form carbonic acid, which drops the Ph.
-Is there left over food? Food breaking down further drops Ph...
SimonL;4967358; said:
+1
If you want to buffer you water naturally then add some crushed coral to your filtration system. This will buffer your water raising the ph. This will take time and you will need to add the crushed coral in small amounts and test frequently. The more coral the higher the ph.