Low PH - Please help!

[Cynic]

Hi all,

I currently run three tanks and one is giving me grief as it keeps dropping it's PH at a remarkable rate.

The tank is current 6.3, down from 6.8 yesterday compared to the other tanks 7.0.

The tank parametres are...

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 80
Temperate 25
Volume 200L

Stocking - 18 Cory, 6 Harlequin Rasbora, 5 Kuhli, 2 Guppy, 4 Platy, 1 Molly, 1 Bristlenosed Pleco & 5 Neon Tetra

The only real difference between this tank and the others is the substrate which is silica sand (Pool sand) which I was led to believe is PH netural...

Anyway please advise what if anything I should do as I'm genuinely worried I'll find my fish floating soon

Cheers in advance!

 

[Hholly]

Looks like a pwc is in order, both to reduce nitrates and to restore buffers.

 

[Cynic]

Looks like a pwc is in order, both to reduce nitrates and to restore buffers.

Thanks for the quick reply. In the process of doing a PWC at the moment!

Quick question though, due to the low PH 6.3 of the tank currently compared to the tap waters normal PH 7.0 what size PWC would you recommend so I don't PH shock my fish to death?

 

[Hholly]

If you are worried about shocking them, maybe do 2 consecutive 25% changes. Then maybe repeat the same tomorrow. I'm no expert though. I routinely do 50% changes in my tank, where the pH from the tap is 7.8 and it gasses out to 8.3 within a few hours. I get the feeling that pH shock comes from very sudden extreme changes of the whole volume of water being chemically altered at once, rather than the gradual change by dilution. Again, I'm no expert. Good luck!