What causes the PH to drop?
- Thread starter SaltyCrak
- Start date
If you used a trust worthy liquid drop test and got that ph #, then I would guess that your source water has a lack of buffing ability.
Or your water circulation is very poor.
Or your water circulation is very poor.
You're supposed to change your water every week, not just test it. What's your water change schedule, size of tank, tankmates, etc? The most common cause of pH drop is a long overdue water change.
My circulation is very good. I have 2 internal filter pumps that have 2 combined circulation of about 1500 litres per hour. So that can't be the problem. He has no tank mates. I do a weekly 10% water change which has been fine until now. I must admit that i usually do the change on sunday but this time only got to it last night (wednesday) can 3 days make such a difference? Thanks for the advice.
10% is hardly anything at all. How big is he and what size is the tank? Unless he's a small baby yet and the tank is big, I'd be changing a lot more water than 10%. Your nitrates could easily have creeped up (10% doesn't put a dent in nitrates) and caused a pH crash. Sort of like in old tank syndrome.
My circulation is very good. I have 2 internal filter pumps that have 2 combined circulation of about 1500 litres per hour. So that can't be the problem. He has no tank mates. I do a weekly 10% water change which has been fine until now. I must admit that i usually do the change on sunday but this time only got to it last night (wednesday) can 3 days make such a difference? Thanks for the advice.
Ps, what do you mean by poor buffing ability?
Ps, what do you mean by poor buffing ability?
i have gone 2-4 weeks without a wc many times and never had an problem. to say that 10% a week is going to crash your tank is not 100% true. My 130 gal is stocked well but since the filtration is great and the feedings are not crazy the water should stay clean for a while.
dont always assume that you need to do 75% WC a week to have a clean tank
dont always assume that you need to do 75% WC a week to have a clean tank
Sorry for the double post, stupid opera mini is not updating. Ha ha. It's a 450 litre tank and he's about 50cm long. How much would you recommend i change weekly? I just find it strange that all of a sudden there was this huge drop. I'm still very much a noob, so still learning.
SaltyCrak;3301098; said:
Test your tank for KH.....this keeps your ph from swinging very drastically hence buffers....if your KH is low which could happen from your tap, or execessive co2 or nitrates. W/o proper KH levels your PH will be up and down with every water change which could lead to PH shock..10% water changes are usually ineffective for a large fish espicially if the food is high protein...
dirty filters, waste in the gravel, driftwood in tank all cause low PH
Start off slow increasing your water changes from 10% to 30 % weekly watching your test kit..try changing 10% 3 days in a row, then start your weekly 30% change .do not clean both filters at the same time interupts bio capacity. GL... BTW I change 30-50% of my water twice a week... my tank PH is stable!
If your low PH persits? add a small bag of crushed coral to your filter. ( will buffer your water)
I've got a KH test, so i will check that tonight. I'm lucky in the fact i live on a farm, so my tap water is straight from the our dam. So there are no chemicals. We're even thinking of slapping a bunch of fish into the dam in the near future. I've got pool filter substrate and a nice piece of drift wood. So i'll do another 10% change tonight and clean one of the filters. I cleaned the sand last night, but i'll do a once over on that again. What should my KH be?