PH too Low! and I need help.

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M

malachi

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 2, 2009
67
0
6
redwood city
Currently i am injecting CO2 and i noticed that my ph has now dropped to about 6.2. What i want to do is to balance the ph and keep it constant at around 6.8 or even 7 with CO2 injection of around 30ppm durring the day and air injection at night.

At the moment my tap water is at a ph of about 7.8 and my tank is at like 6.4 or a little less as i mentioned.

How can i get my tank to balance at around 7 which would be ideal for larger fish from the amazon river.

I will gladly do all tests of both tap water and tank water and post them right after this if someone can tell me how to do this.

in the meantime i am going to decrease the levels of co2 and do a water change.

Ideas and comments would be awesome.

i will test the following of both. PH, GH, KH, and NITRATES, NITRITES and AMMOnia of all. If i could just do a weekly water change and adjust appropriately that would be ideal.
 
the last thing you want are big swings in PH. your best bet may be to add a buffer such as some crushed coral. you only want some to "balance" the PH and not have it go in the other direction. start off slowly with this method adding a little at a time over a span of a few days. check the ph and adjust accordingly
 
tap water:

ph 7.6 + maybe even 8
GH = 1 dkh
KH = 3 dkh

ammonia = .75 ppm
nitrites and nitrates = 0 ppm no fish in the pipes

water changes are 15% twice a week and at the moment i add "seachem nuetral regulator" to make the tap ph 7 and do dechlorinize and get rid of ammonia.


then the tank water makes everything look like this:

PH = 6.4 / 6.3
GH = 1 dkh
KH = 5.5 dkh
ammonia = 0ppm
nitrite = 0 ppm
nitrates = 40 - 50 ppm

ph controllers are expensive arent they?
 
ditch the neutral regulator.... it uses phosphates that can lead to algae outbreaks, and you really don't need it. your ph is already being adjusted by the injected CO2.
 
malachi;3352944; said:


tap water:

ph 7.6 + maybe even 8
GH = 1 dkh
KH = 3 dkh

ammonia = .75 ppm
nitrites and nitrates = 0 ppm no fish in the pipes
Click to expand...


ur tap water has ammonia in it? :nilly:
 
oh my god tons of ammonia. almost 1 ppm. doesn't that sound high? supposedly we have very good water out of the reservoir here in the SF Bay area.

I think the neutral regulator is good to be ditched but i dont know if i need to harden the water a bit or if i just plane dont know what im talking about.

i think if the kh values were a little higher in the tap water it might stay higher in ph for longer than a day.
 
The ph drops like a rock once its in the tank. if i change half of the water for example, the water will change to a ph of 7 (no additives or neutral regualtor), then two days later it will be at 6.6 and stay put. Then if i add co2, drops to 6.4 or below.
 
malachi;3353093; said:
oh my god tons of ammonia. almost 1 ppm. doesn't that sound high? supposedly we have very good water out of the reservoir here in the SF Bay area.
Click to expand...


wow, 1 ppm of ammonia in ur tap water, sucks!
 
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