pH has gotten really low... 6.0

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rubysoho

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Okay, I'm having the exact opposite problem I had over the the summer where my pH was really high. I've been at my new apartment since August, the tap water is still 7.0. Anyway, my 55 gallon tank has lots of plants and a large peice over drift wood. Are these why my pH has slowly dropped to 6.0 over the past 2 months? Would crushed coral help raise it up to around 7.0 or will that raise it too high? The manager at my LFS wants me to use chemicals, but I don't want to. I'd like to find a nice natural way. Thanks!
 
Do a 40% pwc.

Also, check what your tap water is after sitting aorund for a while ie in a cup. Let the CO2 equalize with the air.

If you have a pH crash do a good gravel vac with a PWC. Don't use chemicals. Your tap water should be fine.
 
Never use chemicals. The driftwood is certainly lowering your pH. It looks nice, but it lowers your waters pH. You may try fake driftwood or a little bit of cc in the filter.
 
How did you get the 7.0 value? I agree with mattrox -- the best way to check your pH is to let a cup of tap water sit overnight and then test. For example, my pH out of the tap is 8.2 ( 8O ) and after sitting overnight, it's 7.8. If I check the pH in the aquariums, it's 7.2. Established aquariums drop their pH value a little. I'm not sure of all the chemistry involved, but the acidic wastes of the fish help to lower the pH a bit in an established aquarium. So that's one reason your aquarium's pH is lower than your tapwater's pH.

The reason the pH doesn't get too low is that you do partial water changes and replenish the buffers that stabilize the pH a bit. But you also have driftwood. That lowers the pH too. I had a piece of driftwood in a bucket and I put it in tapwater and then tested about 4 days later. The pH dropped all the way down to 6.6. So driftwood is a pretty good at lowering pH.

To combat the effect of the driftwood, you could do more frequent water changes to replenish your water buffers. But this may be too time-consuming. You could consider fake driftwood or put some crushed coral in your filter, like Fishyfanatic said. You'd have to experiment with some CC in a bucket to get an idea of how much you need to raise the pH. Remember to do it very slowly so you don't stress the fish.

What kind of fish do you have? (I can't see your sig from here!) Some tetras are fine with a pH of 6. You could check Liveaquaria.com to see the pH requirements of each fish. If you do decide to raise the pH with crushed coral, just do it slowly. If you decide to take the driftwood out, your weekly water changes should raise the pH slowly.
 
Blucat said:
Any other way to raise Ph besides driftwood?

Driftwood will lower pH, and crushed coral raises it, or at least stabilizes the pH. Since my tap pH is high, I use a mix of tap and RO water for my tanks. To raise the pH -- I have never needed to do this -- but crushed coral is probably the best way. I have heard of using baking soda but you should know what you're doing to use this method, and I wouldn't even want to attempt it. I did put some baking soda in RO water once just to try it, and a very small amount of baking soda raised the pH quite a bit. You should never just put baking soda right into your tank.

Here's an excellent article on pH: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showquestion.php?faq=2&fldAuto=40
 
Hi Nicole. Please read the article on pH stability in the articles section.

You cannot maintain a stable pH in unbuffered water. The likelihood is that your water caontains little are no carbonates. You need to test the KH. Anything under 3 will mean pH swings. Crushed coral will slowly raise the KH (if that's what is needed) :wink:
 
The drop in pH didn't start until the driftwood was added, so I know that is the culprit. I'd take it out, only I have a gold nugget pleco who loves to eat on it all day.

The tap water pH is still 7.0 after sitting for 24 hours. I've been getting a little slack on my water changes, only once a week rather than every few days. Just been too busy, so I guess I haven't been replenishing the natural buffers. However, my ammonia, nitrate and nitrite are always undetectable (had it tested both at home and at the LFS to make sure my tests were still accurate).

BrianNY, thanks for mentioning the article, I'm going to check it out.
 
If you don't remove the driftwood, your pH is going to stay low. Have you thought of selling the gold nugget and getting a different pleco that doesn't need wood?
 
:( I suppose I could sell the little guy... I think I am going to try and fix the pH first with some crushed coral. I'll let you know how it goes.
 
If you really really want to keep him, add the crushed coral to the filtration unit (assuming that you can). If you can't, limestone will also work. There are a couple other rocks that can be added that will raise the pH. But don't over-do it. Add the crushed coral and see where you are in a month, then if it's still low, add a piece of limsetone.
 
yup, I have space for it in my filter. I am going to add just a little at a time. On the article that BrianNY suggested, it said to add a pound of crushed coral per 5 gallons. And that is to get it to a pH of 7.6 so just a little in my filter should help raise it a bit just so it isn't too acidic. I'll make sure to go slowly.
 
read a little bit about KH and GH. KH in particular, low KH levels mean PH swings. I keep my tank at about 5 degrees KH and I have community fish.. (tetras, etc.) My kit recommends using ph buffer made be aquarium pharmecueticals which will raise the KH, using distilled water will lower the KH.....just a thought
 
I use a gallon jug of distilled with the buffer to maintain my PH. Also, are you topping off your evaportated water with tap water? Because evaporated water is pure, leaving the minerals behind. If you add half a gallon a week, you are adding more minerals making your watear pretty hard.
 
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