ieod
Aquarium Advice Newbie
hi
I have a 30 gal freshwater tank with guppies and a gold nugget pleco. Im running a whisper 20 power filter and a penguin pro 30 biowheel powered by a 660 powerhead sucking up from the undergravel filter, plus another 660 powerhead on the other side. The whisper 20 has been there for a while and should have a culture of nitrifiers. the pro 30 is new and i dont think has an active culture yet. The guppies are starting to crowd the tank and i have begun moving them to other tanks.
Anyway i went out of town for a week and my friend overfed them so when i came back the ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates were thru the roof. I freaked out and did a lot of water changes, but the pH keeps going down and the biofilters dont seem to be doing their job removing the ammonia and nitrites. is it because the pH is too low? My 55 gal has a penguin 330 biowheel, and it took care of the ammonia just fine.
I tried using Seachem neutral regulator until it started killing all my amazon swords, which i moved to a 10 gal w some of the guppies. so ive tried using baking soda, but that will immediately send the pH from less than 6 to above 7, even one tbs/30gal and the next day its below 6 again.
i put shells, driftwood and even peat to try to stabilize it, and i know peat drops the pH, but this was a problem even before i added it.
so the only reason i can think of for the constantly dropping pH is either too much organic material, or the phosphate buffers in the neutral regulator lowered the kH. Or have i been doing too many water changes? (50% every 2 weeks, or 20% every few days if somethings off.)
Ive been doing the same thing to my 55 Gal, which only has an oscar and a pleco, and its doing fine, stable at around pH 6.5
one last question, if im using baking soda to raise pH, how will i know when the sodium levels get high enough to stress out the fish?
I tested my tap water with jungle test strips, and its GH= 75-150ppm, kH 40-80ppm, and pH 6.8-7.2 (the colors are kinda hard to read)
thanks
I have a 30 gal freshwater tank with guppies and a gold nugget pleco. Im running a whisper 20 power filter and a penguin pro 30 biowheel powered by a 660 powerhead sucking up from the undergravel filter, plus another 660 powerhead on the other side. The whisper 20 has been there for a while and should have a culture of nitrifiers. the pro 30 is new and i dont think has an active culture yet. The guppies are starting to crowd the tank and i have begun moving them to other tanks.
Anyway i went out of town for a week and my friend overfed them so when i came back the ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates were thru the roof. I freaked out and did a lot of water changes, but the pH keeps going down and the biofilters dont seem to be doing their job removing the ammonia and nitrites. is it because the pH is too low? My 55 gal has a penguin 330 biowheel, and it took care of the ammonia just fine.
I tried using Seachem neutral regulator until it started killing all my amazon swords, which i moved to a 10 gal w some of the guppies. so ive tried using baking soda, but that will immediately send the pH from less than 6 to above 7, even one tbs/30gal and the next day its below 6 again.
i put shells, driftwood and even peat to try to stabilize it, and i know peat drops the pH, but this was a problem even before i added it.
so the only reason i can think of for the constantly dropping pH is either too much organic material, or the phosphate buffers in the neutral regulator lowered the kH. Or have i been doing too many water changes? (50% every 2 weeks, or 20% every few days if somethings off.)
Ive been doing the same thing to my 55 Gal, which only has an oscar and a pleco, and its doing fine, stable at around pH 6.5
one last question, if im using baking soda to raise pH, how will i know when the sodium levels get high enough to stress out the fish?
I tested my tap water with jungle test strips, and its GH= 75-150ppm, kH 40-80ppm, and pH 6.8-7.2 (the colors are kinda hard to read)
thanks
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