Ph Down

[colin1325]

hi my tank is doing fine 0 nitrate 0 nitrite o amonia
??? ph has gone down
is this usual
my tank has been running 6 weeks it is about 500 litres i have 2 fluval 205s and 2 tetra tec 1200s the tank cycled in the appropriate fashion no probs ph was fine now the tank has cycled the ph has dropped to about 7 or just under

should i leave it to settle or should i do something ??? idont want to muck around too much colin

 

[rdd1952]

What is the pH of your tap water? In short, it isn't unusual for the pH to drop, especially if you have city/county water. Most municipal water companies keep the KH & GH of the water low to make it taste better/more drinkable. The low KH results in low to no buffering capacity so there is nothing to keep the pH up (or down if you have something it that tank that would normally raise it). If you have driftwood/bogwood in your tank, that can lower the pH. There are a few things you can do to help combat the drop. Adding a small amount of crushed coral to the filter or some tufa stone to the tank will help add buffering capacity. But if the pH is near7.0, you shouldn't have to do anything. What ever you do, stay away from chemicals such that raise/lower the pH. Those keep the pH in constant swing. Most all fish can easily adapt to any stable pH but struggle when the pH constantly goes up and down.

 

[colin1325]

hi the ph is high when from tap ,,purple in fact but i obviously use de chlorinator
the tank water has been fine until now??
just wondered if the fact of nitrite and nitrate and amonia now being fine had anyrthing to do with ph readings

 

[rdd1952]

Are you using strips or a liquid kit? Strips can be terribly inaccurate. I don't remember ever seeing a liquid kit tht hd a purple color. If you are indeed using strips, the difference could be much less than you think. In either case, it shouldn't be a problem. The ammonia, nitrite and nitrate shoudn't have had any effect.

 

[colin1325]

no im using liquid tests i have just bought a new test kit from ebay plus i already had one which was nearly run out. the one whcih has nearly run out showed coluors as purple high and then yellow as low . the new test is different again . idone a test with the new test kit ! then as i got a wrong result!! i then retested with the old test kit which also told me that the ph had gone down ,

one thing i never told you was that i had just done the first normal weekly water change ! perhaps i had been a little too liberal with de chlorinator . would that bring it down too much ??

as i have said straight from the tap the water is about 9 hi de ho i shalll test again tommorrow with thanks colin

 

[Matt_northants]

Its best to do a pH test either first thing or just before lights out. First thing the pH will be slightly low due to CO2 caused by respiration and at lights out it will be slightly high, as the CO2 will be used by the plants during photosynthesis. If your worried about your pH though it may sound odd check your KH, this is the amount of carbonate hardness and is a measure of your waters ability to buffer pH change. If its high then everything is ok if its low then add some bicarbonate of soda.

 

[grasshopper_green]

this thread relates to my question, so here goes -
my tap water is pH around 7.6 (actually that's as high as the test kit goes, but the color matches 7.6 perfectly)
I'm just getting my tropical tank started and the "cycle" is at its end and i've got some danios and about a dozen plants in the tank. The plants are thriving nicely.

I was thrilled (at first) to see that my pH has dropped to 6.8 since I plan to keep some neons, cardinals, rummynoses and the like.
But then I'm thinking - if the pH dropped to 6.8, will adding the more alkaline tap water during water changes end up stressing the fish?
Any suggestions or wisdom appreciated!

btw, this is my first post. I've been enjoying and learning quite a lot from this forum over the past few weeks.

 

[OldMan47]

Grasshgopper, doing a partial water change with dechlorinated water will be fine. The pH will move a little but the tank water will always drop over time as the nitrogen cycle progresses and processes your ammonia waste. If your water changes are frequent enough, like every week or two, the pH will never get too far off and the water change effect will be smaller because of it. Being afraid of the change and holding off a long time would mean that your water will get far away from your tap water. At that point, the partial water change will stress the fish more bacause the adjustment will be bigger.

 

[backtotropical]

Grasshgopper, doing a partial water change with dechlorinated water will be fine. The pH will move a little but the tank water will always drop over time as the nitrogen cycle progresses and processes your ammonia waste. If your water changes are frequent enough, like every week or two, the pH will never get too far off and the water change effect will be smaller because of it. Being afraid of the change and holding off a long time would mean that your water will get far away from your tap water. At that point, the partial water change will stress the fish more bacause the adjustment will be bigger.

+1

Couldn't have said it better myself.