TheSugarBear
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hi all! Brand new here.
I just setup my tank three days ago. It's destined to be a planted tank. It's a 55gal long. I used 3" of Eco-Complete and about 1/2 of regular brownish pebble aquarium gravel over the top of it. I used RO/DI water for all of it. 2.5watts/gal for 8 hours of the day and 5 watts/gal for 4 hours of the day. There are 4 adult angels, 15 adult tetras, 2 Otto's, and 2 small plecos.
It was a used tank and the brown gravel was used in part to seed bacteria (even though Eco-Complete claims to contain all I need).
My problem is this:
An hour after setting up the tank it had a pH of 6.5 - perfect!
Today, 3 days later, the pH has risen to 7.5 - not so good...
N3, N4, and NH3 are all so low they don't even register on the tests. I don't yet have a KH test kit so I can't give that one.
So now the meat of my question: I am trying to figure out why the pH is rising and suspect the two pieces of rock decor that came with the tank. Can someone ID what kind of rock this is and tell me if it (like coral) is suspect in raising my pH? I hate to get rid of them because the fish love them - but too bad if they're the cause of my woes. I just got my DIY CO2 system seeded and running today and I know that should help a bit, but I need to know about these rocks.
Thank you.
I just setup my tank three days ago. It's destined to be a planted tank. It's a 55gal long. I used 3" of Eco-Complete and about 1/2 of regular brownish pebble aquarium gravel over the top of it. I used RO/DI water for all of it. 2.5watts/gal for 8 hours of the day and 5 watts/gal for 4 hours of the day. There are 4 adult angels, 15 adult tetras, 2 Otto's, and 2 small plecos.
It was a used tank and the brown gravel was used in part to seed bacteria (even though Eco-Complete claims to contain all I need).
My problem is this:
An hour after setting up the tank it had a pH of 6.5 - perfect!
Today, 3 days later, the pH has risen to 7.5 - not so good...
N3, N4, and NH3 are all so low they don't even register on the tests. I don't yet have a KH test kit so I can't give that one.
So now the meat of my question: I am trying to figure out why the pH is rising and suspect the two pieces of rock decor that came with the tank. Can someone ID what kind of rock this is and tell me if it (like coral) is suspect in raising my pH? I hate to get rid of them because the fish love them - but too bad if they're the cause of my woes. I just got my DIY CO2 system seeded and running today and I know that should help a bit, but I need to know about these rocks.
Thank you.