Karackle
Aquarium Advice Freak
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2008
- Messages
- 302
I was doing my bi-weekly water change on my well established 20g tank and decided it had been a while since I did water parameter checks so i figured I'd do them. The ammonia, nitrIte and nitrAte were all normal (0, 0, 10-15) but the pH was unusually low, it was 6.0. I never recalled my pH being that low, but since memories can lie to us, i figured i'd check some other things. So I checked my 5g tank, pH there was ~6.8, and the water coming out of my tap is 7.8+ (my drops only read to 7.8, the water was blue which is over 7.8 but who's to say how much.)
So my question is threefold:
1) What causes the pH to drop?
2) Should I worry about it / do something to try and bring it back up?
3) Could the low pH have caused the problem with intestinal parasites I recently had?
Thanks in advance!!!
Tank Parameters:
20g High, planted, low tech tank
regular aquarium gravel, 78 degrees, Penguin Biowheel 100 filter
Flora:
Purple Cabomba, Wisteria, Cryptocoryne wendtii red (small), Crypt wendtii green (large), Crypt spiralis, Anubias (nana i think)
Fauna:
3 female Bettas, 3 mollies, 3 neon tetras, 3 glolight tetras, 3 zebra danios, 1 female guppy, 1 clown pleco
5.5 Gallon, planted, low tech
regular aquarium gravel, 80 degrees, Red Sea nano filter
Flora:
Purple cabomba, wisteria, Crypt wendtii Red (large and small), crypt w. green, anubias (again, nana i think).
Fauna:1 male betta, 2 otos
So my question is threefold:
1) What causes the pH to drop?
2) Should I worry about it / do something to try and bring it back up?
3) Could the low pH have caused the problem with intestinal parasites I recently had?
Thanks in advance!!!
Tank Parameters:
20g High, planted, low tech tank
regular aquarium gravel, 78 degrees, Penguin Biowheel 100 filter
Flora:
Purple Cabomba, Wisteria, Cryptocoryne wendtii red (small), Crypt wendtii green (large), Crypt spiralis, Anubias (nana i think)
Fauna:
3 female Bettas, 3 mollies, 3 neon tetras, 3 glolight tetras, 3 zebra danios, 1 female guppy, 1 clown pleco
5.5 Gallon, planted, low tech
regular aquarium gravel, 80 degrees, Red Sea nano filter
Flora:
Purple cabomba, wisteria, Crypt wendtii Red (large and small), crypt w. green, anubias (again, nana i think).
Fauna:1 male betta, 2 otos