pH crashes daily

[MartyMA]

Hi Everyone,

My fully cycled tank's pH is crashing on a daily basis. I have been doing daily 50% wc to add buffers. My tap water (dechlorinated) is about 7.5 but the tank will fall to 6.0 within hours of the change. No fish yet so still experimenting. I don't have immediate access to crushed coral so I think water changes is the way to go. Yes, there is a piece of driftwood that has finally stopped leeching tannins. Do you think I can successfully control the pH by just water changes alone?

 

[blert]

Pull the wood and stick it in a bucket of dechlorinated water for now. Test your pH tomorrow and see if it made a difference. Also, let some tap water sit out over night, preferable aerated, and test it's pH tomorrow, that will be the water's true pH. Test your water's KH (basically it's ability to buffer your pH).

 

[LyndaB]

How are you keeping the tank cycled with no fish?

 

[DragonFish71]

Your pH would be better of if you weren't adding things to buffer it. It will be a lot more stable without the chemicals.

Almost any fish can adapt to a stable pH, when you start adding chemicals, they will cause problems as they quit working. You'll have a crash, you'll add a chemical, it'll stop working and crash, you do it again, crash again; wash, rinse repeat. Stop with the additives.

 

[ilostnemo]

Your pH would be better of if you weren't adding things to buffer it. It will be a lot more stable without the chemicals.

Almost any fish can adapt to a stable pH, when you start adding chemicals, they will cause problems as they quit working. You'll have a crash, you'll add a chemical, it'll stop working and crash, you do it again, crash again; wash, rinse repeat. Stop with the additives.

Not always true. If you do buffers the right way you won't have a crash. And crushed coral will never crash. Op what type of fish are you wanting?

 

[jetajockey]

The biggest issue is finding out what is lowering the pH to begin with. The driftwood is probably doing it some, even if the tannin release has minimized. As Lynda asked, how is the tank staying cycled? Are you dosing ammonia?

 

[MartyMA]

I am not really adding a lot of chemicals to the water. Dechlorinator for any change and liquid fertilizer for the plants (weekly). I completed a fishless cycle and need to go shopping. I continue dosing with ammonia up to about 1ppm each day just to keep the bb happy. This is a 6 gallon so only looking for a few small danios and a betta. My concern has been adding fish to a tank that cannot keep it's pH close to neutral. I know that things will stabilize in time and with some oversite but did not want to put a fish into a stressful environment if I can avoid it.

 

[bs6749]

Add baking soda to the tank to increase KH and buffering capacity. Done.