New tank water is behaving weird: keeps getting acidic

[Gulliver]

We just started our aquarium at the beginning of June. Things were a rough start and we lost some fish before the tank was cycling properly. It's just a little 3 gallon with a pump/filter and no live plants. We like Platy fish, so we have one. Everything was going smoothly after the first few weeks.

Then we had to move apartments last week, so I put the fish in a little temp tank and drained the aquarium so we could move it. I refilled the tank in our new home and used my basic tools: A fresh filter, some Bio Safe, did a PH test (around 7), a couple of drops of some Stress Zyme that is also suppose to help the bacteria, a pinch of aquarium salt, and a few drops of Ammo Lock to inhibit too much ammonia.

At this point, I felt I was already being paranoid -- because I've never kept fish before and I really love the fish (such personality!) we have now.

After letting the aquarium run for about 18hrs, I put the fish back in. The next morning the fish was darting around, nervous. So I checked the PH, and it was yellow -- around 4. So I added some PH Up to bring it to around 6.5 or 7. By the evening, the PH was down to arounf 4.5. Again, I dropped some PH Up in. The next morning, it was falling down to 4-5 again. So I used some PH Up one last time. In the evening, when the PH had fallen dramatically again, and my poor fish looked paler than ever, and not to energetic, so I decided to put the fish back in my little mini aquarium, where a fresh water change has still kept a good PH.

I'm anxious to to return my fish to the 3 gallon tank, but I'm not sure what I should be doing to make a safe transition... I feel like I'm blowing it and I really don't want to lose the fish.

 

[Zic]

When I first got my tank, my Ph was too high. I kept adding Ph Upand adding Ph up and Adding even more Ph up. It didn't help. I don't know what to do to raise your Ph, but I wouldn't add that much Ph Up. You only have three gallons of water, I wouldn't add more than a few drops with every water change.

Also, I don't think that Biosafe, StressZyme and Ammo lock are all necessary. You may want to remove that water. All those chemicals may be fine by themselves, but you probably don't want all three in the tank. I'm not completely sure, but the StressZyme is supposed to help build up the bacteria that breaks down ammonia, right? I would add just a little of this and not the other two.

You probably could have just moved the whole tank, water and fish and all, with no problems. But, that's a done deal now. Just get that fish in some fresh water!

Good luck. Let us know what happens.

 

[Spy_90]

what is the PH of the water out of the tap? that's what you have to look at to determine what u can do about your changing PH D:
if the PH out of hte tap is low, and the KH is low as well.. you can use a PH adjuster.. these products are full of buffers, which will help you raise your PH, and keep it there! Aquarium Pharm. makes a product called "PH 7" and makes other PH kits to "set" the PH at a certain level.

 

[Gulliver]

The problem is still occurring. Oh please help!

My tap water has a PH of about 7. After emptying the tank and very carefully rinsing all the gravel, and the two plastic aquarium plants, I refilled the tank (System 3) with tap water and added a new filter and some Bio Safe. After a day of running the tank without my fish, I check the PH again. Still around 7.

Meanwhile, my platy was in a bowl, where the water was a steady 7 for the last three days.

I added my fish in (gradually from a bag) and a couple of drops of Stress Zyme (for getting the tank cycling again... worked well before). One day later, the PH was around 5 again! The poor platy was darting around, very nervous. I added PH Up this morning, bring the PH back up to about 7 over ten minutes... which is a rough change, and I think I should have done it more slowly. I just know that by tomorrow the PH will be down to 5 or so again...

What can drop PH levels like that?!

 

[SixFootDaisy]

First... I'm going to say what has been told to me plenty of times. Chemicals are BAD!

First, you need to find out the hardness of your water.

My water has issues and with the help of a good friend [also on Aquarium advice] I have finally gotten my pH stable!!!!!!

What did I do? Glad you asked.

I put seashells in my filter! It adds calcium to the water, bringing the pH up! You can go to a local craft store, they should have them. Get REAL seashells that are NOT dyed or PAINTED! Put a few in your filter and it should show results. [My results showed the next day!]

Good Luck!!

 

[shawmutt]

That is a good idea, but before you do that, I would find out what is bringing the water down so fast. First test your kH, and let us know the results. Then...this maybe a weird idea, but what I would do is fill 3 glasses with water, let one set alone, put the substrate in one, and put the stresszyme in another. Wait 24 hours, and test the pH again. If you have decorations, etc. get a separate glass for them. This has happened to other people and I'm really curious to see if there's a solution besides adding something.

 

[Gulliver]

I'm worried that the water is too saturated with chemicals now, but I fixed the problem without knowing the cause.

I did a 20% water change and added a new chemical (explained below).

First, I did as people suggested and went looking for a KH testing kit. Let me tell you, after 5 stores and not finding a single one, or a sample tester, I was pretty annoyed. The advice I kept getting from store help was to do nothing and wait out the start of the cycling. Apparently, they were all convinced that it's okay for the PH to drop at the start. Or they suggested partial water changes (20% to 75%).

One store went so far as to suggest to me to stop feeding my fish and let him die, then bury him under the gravel, keep the tank running for a month, then get a new Platy. This was partcularly pessimistic, although obviously a good way to start a tank if you can stomach killing your fish.

Let me say this: with the PH so low in my tank (despite PH Up), there is no chance for the bacteria to build up to get at the ammonia, so the cycling wasn't really going to work. And I didn't want to lose my fish, who already endured a good cycling start when we bought him 2 months ago.

Meanwhile, I set up a gallon of water to which I added some Bio Safe and Stress Zyme, and this test gallon kept a neutral PH after a few days. This proved that the water needed a KH test more than anything.

So yesterday, my last day of rewardless hunting, I finally decided to buy some Bullseye 7.0, which you add at a teaspoon per gallon of water in your tank, and it should automatically keep the PH at 7. This is quite different from PH Up, because it's proactive at affecting the PH to keep it neutral over 2 months.

And so far, it's worked. But my fish is stressed from before and I'll just have to assume I have water that is too hard. And my little ammonia warning card in the tank isn't working. *sigh*

If I could have done it differently, I would have gotten a bigger tank (at least 10 gallons), and I would have tried to rely less on chemicals, bought a testing kit that does everything under the sun, and relied more on bacteria. And when we moved, I would have saved as much of the tank water as possible!

 

[Mushime]

actually, you probably have extremely soft water...if you have a low kh and gh then your water has very little buffering capacity. this means that even if you add chemicals to raise your pH, your water can't "buffer" itself and the pH will go up and down (there aren't enough minerals in soft water to keep the pH constant).

even though you've fixed it temporarily, you're most likely going to have the same problem the next time you do a water change, and the time after that, and the time after that. i'm with everyone else that really feels you need to test your kh and gh to see what type of water you have and what its buffering capacity looks like and then figure out a plan from there. you can continue to mess with it (the seashells are a good idea, make it a little more stable) or you can "go with the flow" and get fish that thrive in a low pH environment. but first you need to get it tested to make sure that's what the issue is, and that it's not something in your tank causing a problem.

if you're not having luck finding test kits in your area, places like www.bigalsonline.com have them for a very reasonable price...lots of other places sell them as well.

*edit* i just wanted to say i understand your pain, i have the same thing going on in my tanks. water is 7.8 out of the tap and within 24 hours it would hit 6.0 on my test kits. i finally realized that my water is so soft it can't maintain any sort of neutral pH. the seashells in the filter work - i can't afford $70 discus but testing will let you know what you're dealing with for sure *end edit*

 

[Gulliver]

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm not going to give up on finding a KH kit and may just order one online. I need to understand this hard/soft water crisis better.

What kind of shells can I get? Where can I find them? What kind are you using?

 

[Mushime]

just regular old seashells - just make sure they're not painted or anything. luckily i live about 30 minutes from the beach, so i can just drive down and pick some up whenever i need them...like someone else mentioned, you should be able to get them from a craft store if you aren't lucky enough to be able to collect your own.

here is a great place to start learning about water chemistry if you're interested: http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/CO2/khgh.html - it seems a little heavy at first but if you can stick with it it'll all start to make sense eventually...i think LOL i still get turned around sometimes

*edit* that link didn't paste right, you may have to copy it and put it in your browser bar to get it to take you to the correct page, sorry about that *end edit*

 

[tkos]

If it were me I would just add a dechlorinator to the water and nothing else. Worse than a low pH is a fluctuating pH. Those pH chems only work in perfect situations and generally lead to algae build ups.

The problem with shells is that they have very little surface area and eventually a build up of organic material will prevent them from giving off carbonates which make the water hard. A better suggestion would be to buy crushed coral from a petstore and place small sacks of it in you filter or else use it as a substrate instead of gravel. Plus it will look nice.

 

[Mushime]

i'm also the kind of person that hates to mess with pH if it can be helped. however, when you have extremely soft water (mine doesn't even register on the test scale - one drop in my vial and it's the color it's supposed to turn - i believe it's less than 17.9 ppm on both gh and kh) my pH bounces all over the place. i've had readings anywhere from 8.1 to at least 6.0 (my test doesn't go any lower than that so for all i know it could be wayyyy down there), so in my case i have to try to do something to buffer. my problems are compounded by the fact that i insist on breeding and raising bettas anyway, i chose seashells over chemicals simply because it works the best from my specific water/tank conditions, and also because i live very close to a beach with all the seashells i could ever want/need, free.

i'm not suggesting anyone mess with their pH unless they're having problems - just sharing what i do in this situation in case it might help soemone else. your mileage may vary.

 

[echo7]

with a tank that small, pretty much anything can have an effect on Ph it might be a good idea to put each of your decorations into some water and test the PH, its possible that one of the decorations is leaking something in the water. the shell thing is also a great idea, but you could also find some type of buffering for your PH. Maybe you could try aragonite of some kind.
good luck with your tank and take it easy