5.5 ph in my 20G and one dead Molly!

[Lohoyan]

Well I never really worried about the PH of my water before but after doing some heavy reading about the nitrogen cycle due to setting up my new 45G I decided to test all the parameters on both tanks. Was a bit shocked to find the ph at 5.5 since our tap water here is around 6.8. The tank has regular colored gravel in it, lots of plants, 2 mollies, 7 tetras, 1pleco, 2 adult guppies, 7 juvenile guppies, and a few tiny babies. I probably overfeed lately in the hope that no one gets hungry for the babies.

Why is my ph so low and is that bad for the mollies. I came home today and found my male Molly wrapped around the intake. Now his two lady friends will never make babies in my tank.

 

[bruinsbro1997]

That's way too low for most fish IMO, try adding some crushed coral to your tank.

 

[Lohoyan]

Wow, I hope I can find some coral in my lfs, there is only one in my town and the next one is about 1100 kilometers away. I still don't understand why the ph is so low. Don't tell me i'm gonna have to read some high school chemistry books now just to keep my tanks going, lol. Whole cycling thing is complicated enough!

 

[eco23]

How often and how large of water changes do you do?

 

[Togliat]

If you have trouble finding crushed coral, ask your LFS for alternatives to raising your PH.

 

[Lohoyan]

I do regular water changes once a week sometimes more often, 10 percent. I've never added salt and I know our water here is very soft. I should probably add salt for those mollies but somehow that just seems weird.

 

[librarygirl]

The Mollys might prefer some salt but you can't add salt in there with the rest of your stock, so if they are doing fine without it there's no need.

A 10% water change every week isn't that much. Perhaps either do a couple of smaller ones per week or a larger one. Keeping nitrates under 20 is one reason to do weekly water changes; the other is to replenish the minerals in the water that the fish use up. Also your PH may stay more stable with say two water changes per week of 20-25% each time. You could also try adding some crushed coral into the filter (in a mesh media bag or clean nylon stocking so it can be removed easily). I'd still increase the pwc a bit though as well.

 

[siva]

My tap water is about 7.6 but many of my tanks run as low as 6.0..I don't know why either?

 

[librarygirl]

My tap water is about 7.6 but many of my tanks run as low as 6.0..I don't know why either?

It might not have a lot of buffering capacity. Have you ever checked the KH/GH of your tap water? Have you tested the PH of the water after it sits out in a glass for 24 hours? That's a huge drop, 7.6-6 and at 6 I'd be worried that the nitrifying bacteria are in danger of dying off. You may want to add some crushed coral to your tank to help buffer it and keep the PH stable, maybe?

 

[Lohoyan]

Thanks for the replies. I got some crushed coral today and put some in my filter, about 5 tablespoons perhaps in a mesh bag. While I was at the lfs the owner tested some of his water to see (cause we use the same tap water) and his was around 7.2, slightly more alkaline than it started but very close. A mystery. how long should I expect for the coral to start working?

I racked up a huge bill there today, more natural beach gravel for my 45G, the coral, bio max, 3 new types of plants they just got in and I didn't,t even get any fish. They just got in some sweet looking gouramis and even some dwarf cichlids. I so wish I knew if the 45G was cycled or not. I can't find any ammonia to test it out.

 

[Lohoyan]

Okay, I have an older bottle of ph tester which I tried and I'm coming up with a reading of 6.5 instead of 5.5 with the newer bottle. I also retested after a few days of adding the crushed coral and both reading are higher but still split, 6.2 versus 7.2. Does the tester get old, I don't see an expiry date on it anywhere.

 

[librarygirl]

What kind of test? Is it the API Master or something else? The API bottles have numbers on the front of them; the last 4 are the date of manufacture (e.g. 0510 is May, 2010).

Also you mentioned a 45 gallon that may or not be cycled. Are there fish in it? Are you adding an ammonia source? Is it running? If it's just running without an ammonia source it can't cycle. If you have another tank you could use somethign from that tank to help seed the new one, but you'll need an ammonia source to go through the cycle (build the bacteria).

 

[Lohoyan]

It's Nutrafin Test. The bottles don't have any dates on them but I just realized the boxes do have expiry dates and the older bottle I have actually expired in 2006. Oops! And that was the bottle giving me the more normal readings. Oh well, according to the good tester the ph in my 20G has come up to 6.2 from 5.5 since adding the crushed coral. Is that good enough? I've got 2 mollies in there.

I couldn't find any suitable ammonia to test my 45G so after a few days I added fish. Two juvy angels from the lfs and four neon tetras from my 20G. So far so good, 0 ammo, 0 nitrite and 5 nitrate. The seeding material must be working. I'm keeping a close eye on all the levels though. Do you think I should add a few more fish or wait for a while. After reading up on angel breeding it sounds so fascinating i'm tempted to go back to my lfs and buy a couple more angels just to be sure that I'll have a breeding pair.