Ph problems, help!

[troubleshootn]

I have a native tank with 11 sunfish, 1 lmb, 1 white cat, and a few crays.

125 gallon-two magnum 350's and two hob 60's.

A lot of rock and two large pieces of driftwood.

My tap water test at 7.2 out the spicket before treatment.

I do weekly %50 water changes

My water is staying around 6.2 I use 7.0 neutral reg powder

I cant seem to stabilize the water parameters. Ive cut back on feeding due to a bloom of what I believe to be hydra.

Any other suggestions, Ive got to do something for these fish I can tell its really starting to stress them.

 

[cypherljk]

What kind of rock do you have in there? Anything with limestone in it will make your PH go high..

 

[Toby_H]

Fill a clean glass with tap water and let it sit overnight. Stir the glass with a clean spoon as often as possible but do not leae the spoon in the glass between stirrings... after 24 huors of doing this test the PH of the water in the glass...

This will give you the PH of your tap water out of the tap. When the water is pressurized traveling through the pipes gasses can build up in the water and those gases can alter a PH test. It does not alter the PH, it causes the PH tests to register a false PH...

So when you do this, the PH of the water in the glass is not changing... but the gases that affect the accuracy of the test are being released...


The majority of the time the PH swings it's because of a very low KH (Carbonate Hardness sometimes referred to as alkalinity).


If the KH is very low then the acids produced in fish waste can be enough to cause the PH to drop.


I would not recommend using Aquarium PH products as many of these products are designed to force you to rely on buying more of their product. Instead I would suggest using baking soda to raise your water before you add it to the tank (if needed)... and I would put a small amount of crushed coral (or similar calcium based material) in a pouch and place this in the filter. The small pouch of coral (or similar) will help to maintain the PH of the water...

 

[troubleshootn]

Now thats some great information, one question.

What quantity of baking soda should be used on a 125 gallon system,
when doing %50 percent water changes, if needed. Thanks for the advise, this will greatly help.

Fill a clean glass with tap water and let it sit overnight. Stir the glass with a clean spoon as often as possible but do not leae the spoon in the glass between stirrings... after 24 huors of doing this test the PH of the water in the glass...

This will give you the PH of your tap water out of the tap. When the water is pressurized traveling through the pipes gasses can build up in the water and those gases can alter a PH test. It does not alter the PH, it causes the PH tests to register a false PH...

So when you do this, the PH of the water in the glass is not changing... but the gases that affect the accuracy of the test are being released...


The majority of the time the PH swings it's because of a very low KH (Carbonate Hardness sometimes referred to as alkalinity).


If the KH is very low then the acids produced in fish waste can be enough to cause the PH to drop.


I would not recommend using Aquarium PH products as many of these products are designed to force you to rely on buying more of their product. Instead I would suggest using baking soda to raise your water before you add it to the tank (if needed)... and I would put a small amount of crushed coral (or similar calcium based material) in a pouch and place this in the filter. The small pouch of coral (or similar) will help to maintain the PH of the water...

 

[wheelsmith]

how are you treating the water, before adding/in tank and for what reason you feel you need to change the ph. if you want a lower ph it,ll help to become more stable if you remove the driftwood as it,ll release tannins and other acids as it decomposes/gets eaten by tank fauna.
also the larger water changes can shock the baterial colonies in the tank may also cause ammonia/nitrite spikes, best to change little and often.

 

[Toby_H]

What quantity of baking soda should be used on a 125 gallon system,
when doing %50 percent water changes, if needed.

That all depends on your tap waters actual Ph and KH values... but as a general point, a little bit goes a long way...

how are you treating the water, before adding/in tank and for what reason you feel you need to change the ph. if you want a lower ph it,ll help to become more stable if you remove the driftwood as it,ll release tannins and other acids as it decomposes/gets eaten by tank fauna.

I agree that Driftwood releases tannins (tannic acid) which can lower PH... But there are many people (myself included) who appreciate it's look well enuogh to work around this effect.

also the larger water changes can shock the baterial colonies in the tank may also cause ammonia/nitrite spikes, best to change little and often.

I do not agree that large water changes shock bacterial colonies.

It is a common exaggeration that tap water has enough chlorine in it to wipe out bacterial colonies. Bacteria is pretty tough stuff and it's quite rare for tap water to contain enough chlorine to kill bacteria. Plus when doing a 50% water change the amount of chlorine in the water is cut in half. I am not suggesting you do not use dechlorinator, I'm simply suggesting chlorinated tap water is not the 'instant death' to bacteria that many suggest it may be...

Bacteria, being a very very simple organism, is less suseptible to osmosic shock than more complex organisms, such as fish. So provided you are matching water parameters (PH, KH, DH, etc) and temperature close enough for the fish to go unharmed, the bacteria will also go unharmed...

 

[troubleshootn]

I definetly want to keep the driftwood, I notice no bacteria bloom doing my water changes I do the filter changes at different intervals to have the least effect on my colonies. As far as treating the water I use the cholramine removing agent in steps I fill a 40 gallon tub treat the water then using a pump return it to the tank. I keep everything as close as possible when adding new water.

I think my biggest acidic producer is probably the amount of stock and driftwood (as mentioned) I have, I think if I could use the crushed coral and/or baking soda to counter that It would be great. So Ill give that a try and post the results

 

[troubleshootn]

One thing I fell to mention is im trying to obtain a 7.0 reading. I want the water as neutral as possible. I think the 6.2 and possibly lower is way to acidic for my stock.

 

[bud]

I would do much larger w/c on the stock list for that size tank some where in the 80%.The driftwood does lower ph but it is well worth it to have a tank look natural.I have over 20 CA tanks up and running and do 80%w/c on most once a week and half are for fry and I do 80% on then 2 time per week and it works great for me and has for yrs.I might at any give time have 4000 plus fry and 6 or more breeding pairs and trios so I am not new to this.

 

[troubleshootn]

Yea im with ya on that one, I in actuality pull the water down to the tops of their dorsals usually which is arounf 80