Help! The Ph In My Livebearer Tank Is 6.00 Or Less

[Ralphw62]

Im losin fish
the PH in my Livebearer tank is 6.00 or less
what the best way to fix this?
Thanks
 
 
My comunity tank is 7.2 I'm putting the ill fish in there...maybe all of the
 
 
 
Is weird becuse I just did a 80% water change 2 hours ago and tap water is about 7.4
 
GH 40
KH 30
PH 6
No2 0
No3 10-20

 

[techen]

Waterchanges? Slowly bring the PH back up to normal. Sounds like you may have got a PH crash.

 

[Ralphw62]

just did
 
whats doing that?

 

[techen]

Could be something in your tank, Have you changed anything at all?
 
Also it could be your water supply may have changed too. Worth checking the website.

 

[KrystaK]

Any number of things could be doing it. Tap water usually comes out of the tap a certain pH but then settles to a different one after 24 hours.
What decorations do you have in the tank? Any Bog wood or peat? That can lower the pH. (But probably not cause a crash)
I would advise against moving fish to thehospital tank too quickly as the pH difference may be harder on them than the pH crash. Try drip acclimating them very slowly from the hospital tank, as changing the pH by more than a few points in a given period can be extremely stressful to their body chemistry. Their bodies have to be given time to reach an equilibrium with the water pH.

 

[Ralphw62]

I had some moss in there it was attached to some (not much) wood. this moss was forest moss that I was testing to see how it did under water. mabey the wood?
 
I took it out anyway
 
Its funny My tap water tests 7.5 but when I fill the tank its low low 6-6.2, I used a ph riser to up it .2 so now after another change its 6,6
I moved all my good fish to the big tank..... they seem fine.did it very slowly, I still have fry in that tank and the seem well..I lost 3 mollies to this incedent,,,It might have been the mother of my fry... not sure. I left 3 fancy guppies in the tank is all they are small and most likely wount eat any fry....
weird must have been the wood, it was a little punky or soft, brown and not sure exactly what kind...dumb anyway I hope the guppies can ride this out and the  mollie fry.
 
Hey one more questiom...
My mollie had a batch of light colored fry. then about 2 days later had black fry? why that?  I think all the black ones got gobbled up

 
just check the big tank and all appear to be thriving
 
 
 
PS oh one more thing I had a cork cut into quarters to float some plants....I took that out as well

 

[mark4785]

A low KH is the cause of a PH crash. The lower the KH, the more the PH fluctuates and comes to closer to uncontrollably crashing. The KH level lowers over time naturally in response to calcium and other nutrients being used by the biological system, the fish and the plants. Either your tap water KH is very low or you have not done a water change for a long time (3-4 weeks perhaps) which has mean't the minerals that make up the KH have depleted to inappropriate levels.
 
I ideally advice you buy and use an API KH test kit. A KH level between 5-6 DH is generally recommended which roughly converts to 90 mg/L. OP currently has 1/3 of this.
 
You can keep fish in a water with a KH of 30 mg/L but to do this you need a low bio-load and need to do frequent water changes to top it up.

 

[Ralphw62]

A low KH is the cause of a PH crash. The lower the KH, the more the PH fluctuates and comes to closer to uncontrollably crashing. The KH level lowers over time naturally in response to calcium and other nutrients being used by the biological system, the fish and the plants. Either your tap water KH is very low or you have not done a water change for a long time (3-4 weeks perhaps) which has mean't the minerals that make up the KH have depleted to inappropriate levels.
 
I ideally advice you buy and use an API KH test kit. A KH level between 5-6 DH is generally recommended which roughly converts to 90 mg/L. OP currently has 1/3 of this.
 
You can keep fish in a water with a KH of 30 mg/L but to do this you need a low bio-load and need to do frequent water changes to top it up.

GH 40
KH 30 
PH 6
No2 0
No3 10-20
 
daily water changes  today twice  all my tanks get regular water changes daily and weekly
'
 
come to think of it last week I tried those API ammo-chips in a filter pouch and ran it in my power filter... this seems to be around the time this started, they did nothing to help and are gone.
 
 
 
BTW all my fish I moved seem healthy colorful eating well and just seem healthy

 

[mark4785]

A low KH is the cause of a PH crash. The lower the KH, the more the PH fluctuates and comes to closer to uncontrollably crashing. The KH level lowers over time naturally in response to calcium and other nutrients being used by the biological system, the fish and the plants. Either your tap water KH is very low or you have not done a water change for a long time (3-4 weeks perhaps) which has mean't the minerals that make up the KH have depleted to inappropriate levels.
 
I ideally advice you buy and use an API KH test kit. A KH level between 5-6 DH is generally recommended which roughly converts to 90 mg/L. OP currently has 1/3 of this.
 
You can keep fish in a water with a KH of 30 mg/L but to do this you need a low bio-load and need to do frequent water changes to top it up.

GH 40
KH 30 
PH 6
No2 0
No3 10-20
 
daily water changes  today twice  all my tanks get regular water changes daily and weekly
'
 
come to think of it last week I tried those API ammo-chips in a filter pouch and ran it in my power filter... this seems to be around the time this started, they did nothing to help and are gone.
 
 
 
BTW all my fish I moved seem healthy colorful eating well and just seem healthy

 
Your tap water KH is probably quite low then. Have you done a KH test on your tap water? A mix of 30 mg/L of KH and a heavy bio-load equals frequent PH crashes in my mind.
 
It might be worth getting a KH buffering agent to increase your KH slightly.
 
I've used something called NT Labs KH up in my pond for 4 years now to keep the KH level in check. You'd need something like this only for an aquarium.

 

[Ralphw62]

GH       30
KH         0
PH         7     with help from chemicals
No2        0
No3       10-20
I guess I have extremly soft water, How do I correct it?


I just read Cruched coral..... It will raise it nd hold it there..... Should I put it in a biobag?
how do I put in tanks
 
the water comes out of the tap 0 KH
 
BTW I used 2 different tests the Tetratest kit and strips both say 0

 

[mark4785]

GH       30
KH         0
PH         7     with help from chemicals
No2        0
No3       10-20
I guess I have extremly soft water, How do I correct it?


I just read Cruched coral..... It will raise it nd hold it there..... Should I put it in a biobag?
how do I put in tanks
 
the water comes out of the tap 0 KH
 
BTW I used 2 different tests the Tetratest kit and strips both say 0

 
To higher it, I would recommend buying 'KH up' from Nt Labs. It increases the calcium concentration of your water. I would never add something to the aquarium to leech compounds into the water that will higher your KH as you may end up with a unreasonably high KH. However, if you want to take this route crushed coral or limestone would be the way to go.
 
Did you shake the testing tube thoroughly when testing to determine the KH? Also, after 1 year or 2 such tests stop functioning and can provide inaccurate results. I know this because I test my pond's KH every 7-12 days and the KH test just stopped functioning.
 
If I were you I'd discard the strips as they are popularly known for leading people astray from day one.

 

[Ralphw62]

I went the crushed coral route I put it in those litttle corner plastic cheap filters with the floss. the tanks are void of life except about 5 fry in the liver bearing tank.
but new GH and KH test kitswill monitor daily to get where I need to be, With the water changing I have been doing I can't afford to put more chemicals in the tank everytime
plus this seemed more natural for livebearers and slower

 

[mark4785]

I went the crushed coral route I put it in those litttle corner plastic cheap filters with the floss. the tanks are void of life except about 5 fry in the liver bearing tank.
but new GH and KH test kitswill monitor daily to get where I need to be, With the water changing I have been doing I can't afford to put more chemicals in the tank everytime
plus this seemed more natural for livebearers and slower

 
Yes, keep testing daily and then you will get a feel for how often the KH/GH changes. When I add KH up or any buffering agent to the pond I add it gradually as a sudden jump in GH/KH can cause skin burns on fish. You may want to be cautious too, especially as your body of water is smaller than that of a pond.
 
Increasing the KH by 1 dH / 15 mg/L at a time would be by recommendation.