Does Sand Lower Ph?

[Ogrt48]

I added sand to my 55g Monday night. The PH has slowly been lowering from 7.8 to 6.3 today. Is the sand doing this? It's play sand from Home Depot. I washed it really well, atleast I thought I did, it was clear in the bucket but clouded up the tank which is still slowly clearning up from that. My ammonia and nitrites are at 0.

 

[AMS]

Are you in the process of cycling? Sand wont lower pH, if anything it would make it higher.

 

[Ogrt48]

Are you in the process of cycling? Sand wont lower pH, if anything it would make it higher.

It should be cycling but I'm not sure if it even started or not. The tank has been setup up since Sunday night. I used a filter from another tank without washing it at all. I heard this will help speed up the cycle. The ammonia and nitrites never increased much at all though. Max nintrites has been was .25 and ammonia .25. Both dropped to 0 the next day. PH is the only one that changed. It did go up a tiny bit after I added the sand, not much though, then I had this big drop over a few days.

 

[Phoenixfish]

hmm thats a bit wierd, like AMS said, it shouldnt change it unless its got something in thats abit un usual like limestone which is a nono in tanks, but swwing as you are cycling without anything in i dont see a problem, just do some water changes to get the p.h back up till it stays constant

 

[AMS]

What is the pH of your tap?

 

[Ogrt48]

What is the pH of your tap?

I'm at work right now so I can't get up to test it but from the tap its normally somewhere between 7.2-7.4

 

[steelhealr]

Silica based sand shoudn't affect pH. Aragonite, crushed coral or other calcium carbonate substrates would raise pH not lower it. As mentioned above, either your tap water may have a low kH, low pH or, if this is an established tank, the sand is trapping detritus and causing a lower pH. However, it seems to early for this to be occurring. If you have a left over sample of the sand, you could test your tap, put some sand in it, shake it up, and retest the pH. SH

 

[Ogrt48]

Silica based sand shoudn't affect pH. Aragonite, crushed coral or other calcium carbonate substrates would raise pH not lower it. As mentioned above, either your tap water may have a low kH, low pH or, if this is an established tank, the sand is trapping detritus and causing a lower pH. However, it seems to early for this to be occurring. If you have a left over sample of the sand, you could test your tap, put some sand in it, shake it up, and retest the pH. SH

Argh an hour ago or so I tested my tap water, today its at 7.2 so I dumped out 12g of my 55g tank and replaced it. My tank still is at 6.2 after the water change, it didn't go up or down. o.o

 

[ringham]

I have sand in my tank and have found that the pH is a lot higher than in my original gravel tank. Therefore I doubt that it will lower your pH. Try checking for dead fish etc.

 

[Ogrt48]

I have sand in my tank and have found that the pH is a lot higher than in my original gravel tank. Therefore I doubt that it will lower your pH. Try checking for dead fish etc.

No dead fish, they're all doing fine.

 

[steelhealr]

We'd need a full set of params to help you further, including pH, kH, gH for both tap and tank. SH