jamie_lynn
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
As background to this help request, I just completed a move from California to St. Louis Missouri through the help and advice of members here on this forum. After a four-day journey by car, my three shrimp and I arrived at our new home.
All 3 Amanos survived the trip, thanks to the well seasoned sponge filter and a bucket set up that I had going. All the plants, substrate, and Driftwood that I had in my tank also made the trip safely in wet containers. This includes the second filter that usually runs in my fluval spec tank.
Now comes the part where I as a newbie made a foolish though well intentioned mistake. In the process of moving them back to their tank, I noticed that the tap water here had a funny taste. So I thought that if I filtered it, it might be safer for my shrimp. I think that instead I have caused the pH to crash and I am having a very difficult time getting it back to normal.
Any help you can give will be much appreciated. Every time I think I am starting to understand the hobby, something like this happens and I realize how little I really know. I am going to write down everything I know so far below, in case it helps.
1. PH in the tank on the first night was at around 6.6. This was a combination of filtered St. Louis water and water that I brought with me from their tank in California. Acclimation was taken slowly and seemed to go well.
2. Everyone was fine, the shrimp were active, and I was in moving mode. So I didn't test the water again until 24 hours later. My shrimp are also very inactive at that point which had me worried.
3. Then the water test started and I found some interesting things… first, ammonia nitrite and nitrate levels were all normal. They still are. But pH has been a consistent problem. PH was at the lowest possible register (my kit doesn't test below 6.0).
4. On its own, I might have just thought it was a 6.0. But that combined with the odd shrimp behavior had me start a whole round of ph tests. I have found the following:
St. Louis water straight from tap: 8.4
St. Louis water after 1 hr aeration in a bucket: 7.8
St. Louis water filtered w/ Britta: 6.0
I have now done several very small PWC's in 10 minute intervals via advice I found online. Both times, I was able to raise The pH to 6.4 by just changing out a half gallon (so I don't think The pH is totally crashed). By gradually changing another few gallons, I could get it up to about 6.6.
However in both cases within a few hours the pH had crashed again, back down to 6.0 (or lower). The last time I did this, I also tested the water that I had taken out of the tank but left in a bucket. That water stayed at 6.6 and did not revert back to 6.0. That makes me think it must be something in my tank that is causing the problem. I'm not sure whether it was the filtered water that initially caused the issue, or whether it's something else. There is nothing new in the tank besides the water. Only all the same things that were in the tank before.
With that said, if you have made it through this post, and are willing/able to help, all advice will be appreciated. I would hate to see the shrimp die after coming so far. Thus far, they have been troopers. And once I manage to raise the ph just a little, they become more active and start to come watch what I'm doing and eat a little algae.
Some questions:
Should I remove my driftwood for now until the pH problem is solved? It has never been a problem before, but maybe right now it is making things worse?
Given that pH outside of the tank seems more stable, should I take my sponge filter back out, set it back up in the bucket they traveled in, and remove my shrimp to that bucket until the pH problem is resolved in the tank?
Also, I am finding that it is taking a very very long time to raise the pH through the small partial water changes. It may be that I am doing something wrong (i.e., not changing enough at a time). This time, I am devoted to bringing it all the way up to the St. Louis level (7.8 after initial aeration) even if it takes all day. But if you have some ideas on what I might do to safely speed up the process, it would be appreciated.
Thank you in advance! I am getting a crash course in PH (no pun intended) which was always stable in California.
All 3 Amanos survived the trip, thanks to the well seasoned sponge filter and a bucket set up that I had going. All the plants, substrate, and Driftwood that I had in my tank also made the trip safely in wet containers. This includes the second filter that usually runs in my fluval spec tank.
Now comes the part where I as a newbie made a foolish though well intentioned mistake. In the process of moving them back to their tank, I noticed that the tap water here had a funny taste. So I thought that if I filtered it, it might be safer for my shrimp. I think that instead I have caused the pH to crash and I am having a very difficult time getting it back to normal.
Any help you can give will be much appreciated. Every time I think I am starting to understand the hobby, something like this happens and I realize how little I really know. I am going to write down everything I know so far below, in case it helps.
1. PH in the tank on the first night was at around 6.6. This was a combination of filtered St. Louis water and water that I brought with me from their tank in California. Acclimation was taken slowly and seemed to go well.
2. Everyone was fine, the shrimp were active, and I was in moving mode. So I didn't test the water again until 24 hours later. My shrimp are also very inactive at that point which had me worried.
3. Then the water test started and I found some interesting things… first, ammonia nitrite and nitrate levels were all normal. They still are. But pH has been a consistent problem. PH was at the lowest possible register (my kit doesn't test below 6.0).
4. On its own, I might have just thought it was a 6.0. But that combined with the odd shrimp behavior had me start a whole round of ph tests. I have found the following:
St. Louis water straight from tap: 8.4
St. Louis water after 1 hr aeration in a bucket: 7.8
St. Louis water filtered w/ Britta: 6.0
I have now done several very small PWC's in 10 minute intervals via advice I found online. Both times, I was able to raise The pH to 6.4 by just changing out a half gallon (so I don't think The pH is totally crashed). By gradually changing another few gallons, I could get it up to about 6.6.
However in both cases within a few hours the pH had crashed again, back down to 6.0 (or lower). The last time I did this, I also tested the water that I had taken out of the tank but left in a bucket. That water stayed at 6.6 and did not revert back to 6.0. That makes me think it must be something in my tank that is causing the problem. I'm not sure whether it was the filtered water that initially caused the issue, or whether it's something else. There is nothing new in the tank besides the water. Only all the same things that were in the tank before.
With that said, if you have made it through this post, and are willing/able to help, all advice will be appreciated. I would hate to see the shrimp die after coming so far. Thus far, they have been troopers. And once I manage to raise the ph just a little, they become more active and start to come watch what I'm doing and eat a little algae.
Some questions:
Should I remove my driftwood for now until the pH problem is solved? It has never been a problem before, but maybe right now it is making things worse?
Given that pH outside of the tank seems more stable, should I take my sponge filter back out, set it back up in the bucket they traveled in, and remove my shrimp to that bucket until the pH problem is resolved in the tank?
Also, I am finding that it is taking a very very long time to raise the pH through the small partial water changes. It may be that I am doing something wrong (i.e., not changing enough at a time). This time, I am devoted to bringing it all the way up to the St. Louis level (7.8 after initial aeration) even if it takes all day. But if you have some ideas on what I might do to safely speed up the process, it would be appreciated.
Thank you in advance! I am getting a crash course in PH (no pun intended) which was always stable in California.
