Ph Goes Down And Up?

[madjoker14]

hi everyone, havnt posted in a while because i havnt had any trouble till i kept taking ph readings.

so i checked my ph with the master kit and last monday i got 7.5ph so i was happy,then wed i tested again and i got 6.6ph,dubble checkd to make sure and still 6.6, so fri came and i did another ph test and got 7.6 and sunday i got 6.6

i have snails in my tank and i can also see there shell is almost like see through,my fishs seem to be fine but why is my ph levels droping and rising like this,

just some info
20g tank
2 molly
5 daino
1 platy
2 cherry shrimp
lotttttts of snail (the one you dont want)
and about 50% plantd -high lighting (3.0wpg) and no co2(working on the co2)

any suggestions on what could be happing,something im doing?or not doing? any type of treatment (ph up/ph down)

thanks in advance for any input

 

[waterdrop]

Could be that you have very low KH (temporary or carbonate hardness.) Get a KH kit and see what you get. You may have a KH below 2. If your KH is up above 4 your pH would probably be more steady.

As to why its happening, can't say. Could you have a significant percentage of the 50% plant coverage that is dying and creating plant debris? Are you feeding the plants anything or do you have a special substrate for them - sometimes those substrates cause pH drops.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[LosC519]

Get this under control as this will eventually turn fatal.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Could be that you have very low KH (temporary or carbonate hardness.) Get a KH kit and see what you get. You may have a KH below 2. If your KH is up above 4 your pH would probably be more steady.

As to why its happening, can't say. Could you have a significant percentage of the 50% plant coverage that is dying and creating plant debris? Are you feeding the plants anything or do you have a special substrate for them - sometimes those substrates cause pH drops.

~~waterdrop~~

i agree, a low kH is likley the cause, waterdrop knows more on gh and kh than me but if you can get both those levels tested and post the results it will help us decipher what's going on.

 

[waterdrop]

Some companies sell only the bundled GH/KH tests and its nice to know your GH (general hardness) just out of interest, but GH is not something that is generally acted upon. Only Carbonate Hardness (KH) numbers are used to take actions for the most part. So if, like me one time, you only happen on a KH-only test kit, that's fine, its the thing you would need.