Kclskates
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2013
- Messages
- 41
What causes ph to drop?
Ph drop
- Thread starter Kclskates
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
tiger terror
Aquarium Advice Addict
Are you currently cycling your tank?
OP
OP
Kclskates
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2013
- Messages
- 41
No. Tank is 3yrs old
jlk
Aquarium Advice Addict
Are you inquiring in respect to your tank or just in general?
molliwopp
Aquarium Advice Addict
Could be afew things, how often do you check your tap water? Could be this.
Are you running co2? If so is it a homemade system? Co2 can lower ph and the more you add the lower it will go. Amounts of co2 pumped into the water can fluctuate with lower tech homemade co2 systems.
Added anything to the tank recently that could be doing it?
If you havent added or changed anything then i would suspect changing ph in your tap water.
Are you running co2? If so is it a homemade system? Co2 can lower ph and the more you add the lower it will go. Amounts of co2 pumped into the water can fluctuate with lower tech homemade co2 systems.
Added anything to the tank recently that could be doing it?
If you havent added or changed anything then i would suspect changing ph in your tap water.
OP
OP
Kclskates
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2013
- Messages
- 41
My tap is around 7.6
I don't add anything cause my goldfish eat the plants. There for my plants don't grow very much.
But my ph usually was around 7. But now it is around 6.2-6.6
I did let my filter go a little long with out cleaning it but no longer then 2 weeks. I have a huge canister filter fit for 125g in my 46 g bow front.
I don't add anything cause my goldfish eat the plants. There for my plants don't grow very much.
But my ph usually was around 7. But now it is around 6.2-6.6
I did let my filter go a little long with out cleaning it but no longer then 2 weeks. I have a huge canister filter fit for 125g in my 46 g bow front.
jlk
Aquarium Advice Addict
7 is borderline low for goldfish. They do better in hard, high ph water. 6.2 is very acidic not only for your goldfish but your tank in general as your good bacteria function poorly in acidic water. Once it hits @6, they no longer process ammonia and it will spike. Have you checked your ammonia levels?
Please correct me if I am wrong here but I believe you mentioned in your unhealthy fish post that you only change the water 2x a month. What happens in an overstocked tank with big messy fish and a lack of sufficient wcs is the tank will crash. I believe I mentioned the ph dropping as issue in your other thread. Sorry I missed your post on this.
Basically, your tap only has 'x' GH and KH levels. They work together to keep ph stable with KH playing the larger part. Your good bacteria use KH to process ammonia. Your messy fish are producing a lot of ammonia. And the KH is being utilized quickly. Nitrates are likely increasing at a tremendous rate as well. Only water changes can restore lost KH and GH and remove nitrates. Without lots of big, frequent wcs to keep the tank stable, it crashes.
Short term remedy is to increase your wcs big time. Adding some crushed coral or aragonite will help too but long term solution is a much bigger tank for these guys as your tank is beyond its biological capacity. Even extreme filtration can not make up for lack of water volume with messy fish, unfortunately. Hope this makes some sense!
Please correct me if I am wrong here but I believe you mentioned in your unhealthy fish post that you only change the water 2x a month. What happens in an overstocked tank with big messy fish and a lack of sufficient wcs is the tank will crash. I believe I mentioned the ph dropping as issue in your other thread. Sorry I missed your post on this.
Basically, your tap only has 'x' GH and KH levels. They work together to keep ph stable with KH playing the larger part. Your good bacteria use KH to process ammonia. Your messy fish are producing a lot of ammonia. And the KH is being utilized quickly. Nitrates are likely increasing at a tremendous rate as well. Only water changes can restore lost KH and GH and remove nitrates. Without lots of big, frequent wcs to keep the tank stable, it crashes.
Short term remedy is to increase your wcs big time. Adding some crushed coral or aragonite will help too but long term solution is a much bigger tank for these guys as your tank is beyond its biological capacity. Even extreme filtration can not make up for lack of water volume with messy fish, unfortunately. Hope this makes some sense!
OP
OP
Kclskates
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2013
- Messages
- 41
Woooow. That was very good!!!
The ammonia is 0. Nitrates 0. Nitrites 0-20. And yeah ph was dropping.
I have asked pet stores if I should test kh. I think they said no not if your ph is good.
Overalls my problem is over stocked
Should I test for kh or just keep changing water more frequently
Since you told me too change more water I have. Which about a week ago. And my ph is around 6.6. But I just don't feel like I know what's going on in my tank right now.
The ammonia is 0. Nitrates 0. Nitrites 0-20. And yeah ph was dropping.
I have asked pet stores if I should test kh. I think they said no not if your ph is good.
Overalls my problem is over stocked
Should I test for kh or just keep changing water more frequently
Since you told me too change more water I have. Which about a week ago. And my ph is around 6.6. But I just don't feel like I know what's going on in my tank right now.
jlk
Aquarium Advice Addict
It will be helpful if you can get your KH and GH tested for both your tap and your tank. This will give us an idea of what the difference between the two is and how much lower your tank is compared to your tap. If your store uses liquid tests, that's great! If not, even inaccurate strips will give a ballpark idea of where things are sitting. We then can make further suggestions (beyond wcs) to help get your tank more stable. I would really like to see your tank ph sitting in your tap range (I think its the mid 7's?) for the sake of your goldies health and well being. 
jlk
Aquarium Advice Addict
I did forget one thing. If the last wc you did was a week ago, get tank sample now (before any wcs) then I would work on 50% wcs every other day for the next week and see if your tank stabilizes. Let us know how things go!
Similar threads
