sudden drop in ph...

[sonycrr]

the ph dropped from 6.5 to under 6.2(maybe way below?) in 12g tank. i am not sure how much under because i use jungle test strips. the treated water that i keep in a bucket also has a very low ph. this is the first time this has happened.
i keep dechlorinated water in a bucket to add water when water gets evaporated and to do water changes in my 12g. the ph directly from tap is 6.5. the only thing i changed was removing the heater from the bucket of water.

i use api stress coat as water treatment. can the following scenario cause the ph to drop?:
adding warm/hot water to 5g bucket. adding api stress coat .no heater in the bucket. temperature of water falls down to 50s/60s. leaving the water sit there for about 5 days.

i just did a water change in the tank and the ph is back to 6.5. i hope i didnt do the fish any harm by having the ph change so rapidly. =[

ty for the help

 

[hybridtheoryd16]

I would not trust the test strips. a good liquid drop test is the best way to go for repeatable results.

A .4 change in ph should not do any damage to the fish.

 

[sonycrr]

so i did a water change last night and the ph was back to 6.5 and now this morning the ph dropped again to under 6.2.


substrate=PermaGlo Black Lagoon from here "http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+6635+3759+12131&pcatid=12131"

3 lucky bamboos and one decor from petco (pagoda, red asian arch thing)

any ideas what is causing this?

 

[sonycrr]

=[

 

[Deaths Sting]

so i did a water change last night and the ph was back to 6.5 and now this morning the ph dropped again to under 6.2.

any ideas what is causing this?

ur KH/alkalinity is probably very low like my towns water..

with out a certain level of KH ur PH will fluctuate.

my tap water has 0 KH, so my ph goes crazy......i fixed this problem by adding crushed coral. now my KH went from 0 ppm to 150ppm! my ph is now a stable 7.5! its 6.8 out of the tap

u can use crushed coral as substrate or u can put pieces of it in pantyhose and put it in ur filter. i put 5lbs in a paint strainer bag and put it im FX5.

i also suggest buying KH and GH tests. GH is ur general hardness.
ur water is probably very soft like mine is. mines about 40ppm out of the tap, but after the crushed coral its now 100ppm.

another thing that causes ph to drop is Co2. fish exhaust co2 like we do, so if the tank is over stocked there might be huge amounts of co2 in the water resulting in a massive drop in ph.

 

[sonycrr]

thank you! i may try the crush corals
the water is very soft and alkalinity is also very low.
i don't have numbers right now but they strips also test for that.
mb the tank is over stocked = 5 neon tetra, 5 black neon tetra and 1 adult angel (moving angel to a 30 in 2 weeks).

i have a 45g and the same water is used and the ph is remaining stable. sorry for not mentioning that earlier. should i remove the lukcy bamboo or change out the gravel is the ph keeps dropping?

thanks for the help
really appreciated

 

[Itsadeepbluesea]

If your pH keeps falling that fast you have no buffer in your tank. Ideally you have certain compounds in the water which buffer the addition or loss of H+. With out that buffer it will cause your pH to swing depending on whether there is and addition of loss of H+. What you need to do is slowly build up your buffer. I saw someone suggested crushed coral. That is good if you are going for a pH around 8ish but if your looking for a lower pH they do make supplements that you can add, as different compounds will buffer to different pHs. You need to select the proper one for the pH range you are looking for.

 

[sonycrr]

the ph always remained stable though ={
the ph remains stable in my other tank (which doesnt have anything to buffer the ph)
and the ph use to be stable in this tank (12g).
is it possible for it to be caused by the substrate?

i hate when my tanks have issues

 

[Itsadeepbluesea]

Yah but the buffer may have nothing to do with the water you use so the other tank may be fine. In the 12 the capacity is less the the buffer may have been used up so it may be something else in the tank that is causing a surge in H+ ions dropping the pH.

 

[Itsadeepbluesea]

what it comes down to is the reason a pH drops whether it be in a tank or other system is because there is either no buffer or the capacity of the buffer can no longer handle the influx of H+ ions whether it comes from something like ammonia or another source.