Crazy Ph, Please Help!

[Jay-93]

Its quite obviously the substrate and the employee you spoke to didnt know any different.

Personally, I would have that substrate right back out that tank and run the tank with no substrate for a week or two (this wont bother the fish, all my discus tanks were bare, prevented this problem!).

I would get substrate out, do a waterchange (and siphon out last of th substrate/dirt) and add a buffer to the RO and keep testing, see what happens. Most discus are very tolerant! People fuss a little too much sometimes, but in the wild their temperatures and PH does fluctuate depending on time of year and where in the rivers they are and at what depth...

Keep calm and dont panic is the main thing

I completely agree with you. the issue here is that this is the SECOND time Petco has sold me substrate with Calcium in it, when it wasnt suppose to.
Last time I changed my substrate, it scratched my tank, still bitter about it. few questions:

1)So im going to do what you say, However, once i remove the substrate, and run the tank BB, wont this increase the chance of the PH moving up and down? there for i would have to do daily water change inorder to maintain PH due to lack of alkalinty....( think im using correct terminology.)

2) after that, I still want Substrate, I perfer white sand. I was thinking of pool filter sand, not DE. Do they sell super white pool sand, or would what would you suggest?

3) Im going to run some more test on my TAP water to see if it will be suitable for my discus...worse case, if I must use pure RO water, what product do you suggest I use to add minerals back into water?

Thank you

This sounds like me a year ago. Couldn't for the life of me work out how my Ph was in the 7.6+ region when I was using RO and tap water (6.8) daily. Turns out I was using 'coral gravel'. I bought it because it looked nice, but without thinking of 'coral' (marine, much higher Ph), it was rocketing my Ph levels. After researching, coral gravel is in fact used by many Malawi Cichlid keepers to boost the ph. Ever since, my Discus/community fish are happily living in 6.5/6 Ph water

 

[thebsuguy]

Its quite obviously the substrate and the employee you spoke to didnt know any different.

Personally, I would have that substrate right back out that tank and run the tank with no substrate for a week or two (this wont bother the fish, all my discus tanks were bare, prevented this problem!).

I would get substrate out, do a waterchange (and siphon out last of th substrate/dirt) and add a buffer to the RO and keep testing, see what happens. Most discus are very tolerant! People fuss a little too much sometimes, but in the wild their temperatures and PH does fluctuate depending on time of year and where in the rivers they are and at what depth...

Keep calm and dont panic is the main thing

I completely agree with you. the issue here is that this is the SECOND time Petco has sold me substrate with Calcium in it, when it wasnt suppose to.
Last time I changed my substrate, it scratched my tank, still bitter about it. few questions:

1)So im going to do what you say, However, once i remove the substrate, and run the tank BB, wont this increase the chance of the PH moving up and down? there for i would have to do daily water change inorder to maintain PH due to lack of alkalinty....( think im using correct terminology.)

2) after that, I still want Substrate, I perfer white sand. I was thinking of pool filter sand, not DE. Do they sell super white pool sand, or would what would you suggest?

3) Im going to run some more test on my TAP water to see if it will be suitable for my discus...worse case, if I must use pure RO water, what product do you suggest I use to add minerals back into water?

Thank you

This sounds like me a year ago. Couldn't for the life of me work out how my Ph was in the 7.6+ region when I was using RO and tap water (6.8) daily. Turns out I was using 'coral gravel'. I bought it because it looked nice, but without thinking of 'coral' (marine, much higher Ph), it was rocketing my Ph levels. After researching, coral gravel is in fact used by many Malawi Cichlid keepers to boost the ph. Ever since, my Discus/community fish are happily living in 6.5/6 Ph water

Yes, but i am not using Coral Gravel.

 

[DrRob]

To be entirely honest and blunt, from what you've told us, your gravel is making your pH rise.

There's really not going to be anything anyone can tell you apart from to change the substrate that's going to help you out. It may not be coral gravel but it's certainly leaching something that's buffering the water and my bet is that it's limestone in some form or another, whether it be coral or otherwise. It'd be great in a malawi tank but it's not going to work with discus.

Messing more with your water supply is not going to solve this.

Sorry for being blunt, but I can't see any other answer to this.

 

[MBOU]

Have to agree with DrRob

 

[Bugdozer]

You have plants in your tank, right? When the light is off they will emit carbon dioxide into the water just like the fish, and then they take it in when the lights are on. CO2 in the water increases the acidity slightly, so depending on the time of day you test the pH, you might get different results.

 

[the_lock_man]

So ran into another problem. called the petco manager and she said that its impossitable that there is any calcium in my substrate.

She said thay the ph is changing due to me doing weekly water changes, wich is not allowing BB to stay in the tank, and cuasing the ph change. She suggested i do no more than 25% water change once a mounth!

I assurred her she was wrong, that 25% water change weekly is the norm for discus.

She continue to tell me all her cradentials and that i was to blame for not understanding tank cycling.....


How do i go about this issue?

I think we all know that what she said is complete cobblers. Did you contact them with a view to getting a refund? If so, it's unlikely you'll be successful unless you go to the expense of having it professionally tested. Dunno what sort of cost that would be.

 

[thebsuguy]

To be entirely honest and blunt, from what you've told us, your gravel is making your pH rise.

There's really not going to be anything anyone can tell you apart from to change the substrate that's going to help you out. It may not be coral gravel but it's certainly leaching something that's buffering the water and my bet is that it's limestone in some form or another, whether it be coral or otherwise. It'd be great in a malawi tank but it's not going to work with discus.

Messing more with your water supply is not going to solve this.

Sorry for being blunt, but I can't see any other answer to this.

Yes, I agree...
there is just no other solution. I have talked to many diffrent pet shots, and aquarium hobiest. My job is balancing chemicals for pool.
After all my research and input, That is my conclution.

Sucks because they wont let me return the substrate because they are blamming my weekly water change on the ph...go figure,

Now that is out of the way, I was looking into new substrate. I was thinking very white pool filter sand. I like pure white, even tho its a pain to keep white, and I like the sandy look.
Any suggestions??

You have plants in your tank, right? When the light is off they will emit carbon dioxide into the water just like the fish, and then they take it in when the lights are on. CO2 in the water increases the acidity slightly, so depending on the time of day you test the pH, you might get different results.

I agree with you to a point. There are only about 7 very small plants in the tank right now though, with a small amount of fish. The C02 producing its very little.
Second, I want the water to be acidic because its a discus tank. That being said, the water isnt acidic, its the opposite of what I want.

So ran into another problem. called the petco manager and she said that its impossitable that there is any calcium in my substrate.

She said thay the ph is changing due to me doing weekly water changes, wich is not allowing BB to stay in the tank, and cuasing the ph change. She suggested i do no more than 25% water change once a mounth!

I assurred her she was wrong, that 25% water change weekly is the norm for discus.

She continue to tell me all her cradentials and that i was to blame for not understanding tank cycling.....


How do i go about this issue?

I think we all know that what she said is complete cobblers. Did you contact them with a view to getting a refund? If so, it's unlikely you'll be successful unless you go to the expense of having it professionally tested. Dunno what sort of cost that would be.

I didnt not exspect any refund. I did exspect to get store credit to get new substrate. I had to return some black substrate about mounth ago because it was "black" but after a few weeks, it turns out to be painted black rocks.
however, they refuse to give me store credit for new, which is fine, Ill do my buying else where.