Help low ph

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DeaFkiD

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Nov 20, 2013
Messages
25
Location
Albuquerque, nm
What can I do to raise my ph 3 days ago I came home from work to find my puffer on the sand bed breathing heavy shallow breaths and my black lion fish stripped of almost all his color (I started treating for ich the day before) also he had an eye clouding up. I took in a water sample to my LFS test came out at ph 7.4 a trace of ammonia nitrite .25 nitrate 10 and salinity 1.026. They have me some buffer to help out told me to bring down salinity with a small water changes and to put a bubbler to get more oxygen in my water. So today's test nitrite is 0 ammonia 0 nitrate0 but my ph is between 7.4 and 8. My stock is the lion, yellow tang, Fuji puffer, marine beta, humu humu and a chocolate chip starfish. Please anything will help, tank you in advance for any help


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Oh to mention I lost my porcupine puffer by the time I got back from the LFS


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It's 120 gal tank it was cycled and has been up and running since October last year


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How often are your water changes? Ph issues are normally solved by increasing water movement, but I would be concerned about the readings of ammonia and nitrite in the tank as this is toxic and most likely the cause for your ich and clouded eyes. Something happened in the tank that caused the ammonia spike that needs identified and resolved. A water change now would be in order to get the toxic levels down and not detectable.
 
I top off about 5 gallons a week due to evap and water changes about every three weeks and I'm changing about 15-20%


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Switch to 10% weekly water changes to keep your nitrate, and other, levels down as low as possible.
I would do a larger than arrange water change to get them in ok range to help your stressed out fish out.
Remember, if nitrates are 40 a 50% change will take them to 20. If they go up by 10 each week, the 30 will be taken to 27. This is better than the monthly as the 10 a week would be 50 and only lowered into the 40s.


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Ok thank you will this help with my low ph level cause everything else has been dropping but the ph isn't going up


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Ph is a funny thing. In my tank, it is always low.
You can increase the agitation of the surface to help with ph. Even putting a clip on fan to blow across the top of the tank can help. Just don't start adding chemicals to try and bring it up as it always leads to problems.


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Ok yeah I have an air rock on the top now


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You'll want to switch to a powerhead for this. The 'violent' breaking of bubbles on the surface will create salt creep. This can lower salinity and corrode equipment. Chunks of salt falling back into the tank can also burn livestock.
 
Wow, thank you. I didn't know that. It's weird my LFS told me to do this.


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Well, they are right that it is helping remove CO2 and bringing in oxygen. This is what you want, just not something you would really think about as it is very common is freshwater applications...which most LFS are more accustom to. Great knowledge of saltwater applications are sometimes few and far between. It is why communities like this are great.
 
I am just saying weird because, it's a sw only LFS, and they are very reputable here. Thank you for you advice and will look into a power head.


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