Hi kaiser, I keep having such small snippets of time that I can't ever piece together all the details of your case and then have time to comment or make any suggestions, lol. Maybe we can do it little bit by little bit.. its a fish-in cycle? What kind of pH range are you hoping to keep the fish in? Your tap water won't take you any higher than 6.4 it seems?
As a quick answer to your latest question there, I would not consider baking soda (bicarb.) It makes its hardness changes much too quickly! Crushed coral is indeed the method of choice when fish are involved. Its possible you could use a really small amount in a mesh bag in your filter and obtain a small KH/pH rise. My idea would be for us to try and get Robby and OM47 on board and all discuss it as an ideal way to go. If we can't catch them though we may be able to piece together the right direction from your answers to the above questions, given some time.
WD
Thanks, I will try and give a brief description of events so far regarding the ph. This is a fish in cycle with three platies.
First, my tap water...
ph 6.6
ammonia 0.25 ppm
nitrite 0 ppm
nitrate 0 ppm
My tank held a stable ph around 6.6 for the first 12 days or so. Around this time I switched dechlorinator to API stresscoat plus, to help deal with the ammonia in my tap water, as it breaks the chloramine/ammonia bond in a similar way to prime I believe. A couple of days (or rather water changes) later the ph crashed to 6.0 or below and stayed there for a few days. Water changes were carried out everyday during this time to try and bring the ph back up. After realising the crash coincided with the declorinator change, I switched back to using the Nutrafin Aquasafe which came with the tank. Aquasafe does not break the chloramine/ammonia bond. Since then for the last three days the tank has had a ph of 6.4.
I dont know if stresscoat plus was to blame, but my daughters tank had the exact same ph crash and it too only stabilised when I stopped using it.
I know that cycling and other factors drive ph downward, which worries me because I have such a low ph to begin with. If its at 6.4 with three platies now, what can I expect it to be six months or a year from now with even more fish in? Last night I read another members fish in cycle diary in the pinned topics. By the end of his cycle the ph had dropped 0.6. I know all tanks/cycles are different but reading it was enough to make me think I should maybe take action now, to safeguard against possible ph drops in the future. Not to mention the slow bacteria growth in such low ph.
As far as what ph range I want to keep the fish in, I dont really have a number in mind. But I know I didnt like it at 6.0 or below. Bearing in mind my tap water is blessed with ammonia, it makes sense to me to keep it acidic, to keep the ammonia less toxic. But at the same time I want to encourage bacteria growth and whatever I decide to do, I want the ph to remain stable.
It's a fish-in cycle, where his tap water pH is 6.4 but it keeps dropping to 6.
As WD said, you can't use bicarb with fish but crushed coral is probably the way foward. Keep up the waterchanges and the answer should soon arrive
Thanks Simon
From what I understand about crushed coral, in acidic water like mine the acid eats away at the coral, which in turn raises ph above 7.0. This brings a few questions to mind. The first one being, it raises ph into the high 7 range, is this true? Or is it possible to use a specific amount to set ph at a number of your choice? ie 7.0. How fast does it raise?
Thank you both!
Day 19
ph 6.4
ammonia 0 to 0.25 ppm
nitrite 0 ppm
