PNWaquarist
Aquarium Advice Addict
After doing a 20% water change, I cleaned my filter yesterday morning. Before cleaning the pastic filter pieces with Q-tips, I stored my filter media in a large cup of tank water. I then squeezed the sponge filter piece in the bucket of spent tank water about 6-7 times and moved my charcoal media into my quarantine tank for cycling. I did not mess with the porous ceramic media and kept it in tank water throughout the process.
As I typically do the day after cleaning my filter, I checked my water parameters this morning. Ammonia and nitrites were both 0 ppm, but my pH dropped from its usual value of 7.3-7.4 to about 7.0. The test solution color definitely had a more greenish hue to it than usual. I don't think that my tap water pH has changed, as I just set up a 10 gallon quarantine tank a couple of days ago and its pH was ~7.5 yesterday (after it had a good 12 hours to equilibrate with the atmosphere).
Has this happened to anybody else? I'm wondering if the removal of my charcoal media, the squeezing out of my filter sponge, and the wiping down of the inside of my filter took enough BB out of the filter that more is regrowing and lowering the tank pH... but that there is still enough BB elsewhere in the tank to process the ammonia and nitrite present.
As I typically do the day after cleaning my filter, I checked my water parameters this morning. Ammonia and nitrites were both 0 ppm, but my pH dropped from its usual value of 7.3-7.4 to about 7.0. The test solution color definitely had a more greenish hue to it than usual. I don't think that my tap water pH has changed, as I just set up a 10 gallon quarantine tank a couple of days ago and its pH was ~7.5 yesterday (after it had a good 12 hours to equilibrate with the atmosphere).
Has this happened to anybody else? I'm wondering if the removal of my charcoal media, the squeezing out of my filter sponge, and the wiping down of the inside of my filter took enough BB out of the filter that more is regrowing and lowering the tank pH... but that there is still enough BB elsewhere in the tank to process the ammonia and nitrite present.