Karackle
Aquarium Advice Freak
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2008
- Messages
- 302
I have 2 tanks, a 5g and a 20g. The 5g has natural colored aquarium gravel, a Red Sea nano filter, planted with purple cabomba, wisteria, crypt wendtii and an Anubias. For fish it has 1 Male Betta and 2 otos. There's also a piece of driftwood which I believe is the pH lowering culprit. The tank has had a few problems recently and is going through a bit of a mini-cycle. Ammonia is ~.25, nitrIte ~.25 and nitrAte is about 10 (from plant tablets). The 20g also contains regular aquarium gravel, is heavily planted with Wisteria, Crypt wendtii, Crypt spiralis, purple cabomba, and 2 different anubias sp. It has a Marineland Penguin 100 Bio-Wheel HOB filter. For fish it has 3 female bettas, 3 zebra danios, 6 glolight tetras, 7 neon tetras, 1 female guppy and 1 clown pleco. In this tank ammonia is consistantly 0, as is nitrIte, nitrAte is ~20. Both tanks are low-light. There's a piece of driftwood in this tank as well. For more info on the tanks my journals can be read here: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f19/my-5-gallon-journal-101228.html and here: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f19/my-20g-planted-journal-56k-101691.html
The problem I am having is that the pH in both tanks is 6.0 or lower (6.0 is the lowest the test reads). The water coming out of the tap is 8.4 - 8.8 (I bought a high range pH kit to test it more accurately). Water changes don't seem to be doing the trick for raising the pH, and I worry that because of that, the PWC are causing a fluctuation in pH that's not great for the fish. To combat the pH lowering effects of the driftwood, I'm thinking of adding some crushed coral to the filter to raise/buffer the pH. Is there any reason this is a bad idea?
Any input would be greatly appreciated. Sorry the post is so long! I was trying not to leave anything out!
The problem I am having is that the pH in both tanks is 6.0 or lower (6.0 is the lowest the test reads). The water coming out of the tap is 8.4 - 8.8 (I bought a high range pH kit to test it more accurately). Water changes don't seem to be doing the trick for raising the pH, and I worry that because of that, the PWC are causing a fluctuation in pH that's not great for the fish. To combat the pH lowering effects of the driftwood, I'm thinking of adding some crushed coral to the filter to raise/buffer the pH. Is there any reason this is a bad idea?
Any input would be greatly appreciated. Sorry the post is so long! I was trying not to leave anything out!