Ph in freshwater tank

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Holyship26

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Hi guy

i’ve been maintaining a 7.2 ph level in my tank but for some reason for the past few day the ph levels are dropping to 6.0 every morning.. i’m doing 30-40% water changes to try and combat this but understand this isn’t normal.
Any ideas on why it’s dropping everyday and what I need to do?
Thanks in advance
 
Are you adding carbon dioxide (CO2)?

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).
 
Thanks for your response.
As far as I’m aware I’m not adding CO2. I do have an airstone in there and I treat my tap water with Prime.
GH is 55ppm
KH is 36ppm.
General ph is 7.71-8.03
 
If you have lots of plants in the tank and not much aeration, the plants will produce a lot of CO2 overnight and this can drop the pH. Then during the day when the lights come on, the plants use CO2 and the pH can go up.

If the KH is used up (36ppm KH is low), then the pH can drop over night.

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Are you adding anything to drop the pH?

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You can add some limestone, shells, or dead coral rubble/ skeleton to help stabilise the pH. Add a small amount to the tank and monitor the pH over a week. If the pH keeps dropping then add a bit more and monitor for another week. When the pH stabilises then stop adding limestone.
 
Sure, the odd thing is I actually don’t have any live plants in the tank at the moment.
I’m not adding anything to drop the pH either which is why it’s a mystery.

I’ll add limestones and see how I go.
Thanks
 
it has to be low KH or something in the tank dropping the pH.

put some gravel in a bucket of tap water. Check the pH before you add the gravel and after a few days. See if the pH drops.
 
Ok and just so that I’m prepared when the gravel test is positive what should I be doing if it’s the gravel causing the drop? I do vaccuum it at least once a week.
 
Before you start trying to change things what fish do you have?
Your water is soft. Soft enough that hard water fish would die fairly quickly - and adjusting pH on its own won't change that.
I would expect your water to be acidic. Chances are your water company is adding something to your water to temporarily raise the pH (acidic water corrodes pipes) - so your tap water shoud be tested after 24 hours.

A pH of 6 is perfect for fish that would thrive in your soft water. Constantly fluctuating pH by trying to change it is not good for fish. FWIW the pH in my community tank pictured in my signature is 5.3
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the additional info.
I’ve got Tetras, Guppies, Corydoras and Cherry Shrimps.
 
Thanks for the additional info.
I’ve got Tetras, Guppies, Corydoras and Cherry Shrimps.

I will explain exactly what is occurring here so you know.

In any aquarium, organics accumulate; fish excrement, any dying/dead plant or animal matter, uneaten fish food...these are organics. As the bacteria break them down, the decomposition process, it produces ammonia and CO2. We can forget the ammonia and deal with the CO2. CO2 produces carbonic acid. The water becomes more acidic, and the pH goes down. This is the basic principle that occurs in every aquarium with fish.

The GH (general hardness, which is primarily the dissolved calcium and magnesium in the water) along with the KH (carbonate hardness or Alkalinity) are connected to the pH. The higher the GH and KH, the more it serves to "buffer" the pH to keep it relevant. In your case, the GH and KH are quite low, so there is very little "buffering" capacity. The pH will thus naturally lower.

As seangee noted, this is not at all a problem provided you have fish that require or are suited to such water. With soft water species, you can ignore the GH, KH and pH and your fish will thrive. Just stay with soft water species. The guppies here are not going to do well, so you should re-home them. You would have to raise the GH considerably to accommodate their needs, and this would then impact detrimentally on the other soft water fish.

It is much simpler to work with your water than trying to adjust the parameters. This can get extremely complex and dangerous. The fish, provided they are soft water species, will be healthy and less likely to have stress and disease. There is absolutely no reason to add limestone or shells or coral or similar; it willnot increase GH and that is the prime factor. Work with nature, not against it, and your aquarium will have far fewer problems.
 
Well, being the bad girl that I am - I use chemicals to keep things in line. My normal Ph is 9.4 - nothing a fish can live in, so my only choice would be to give up on keeping fish. Instead I use Neutral Regulator to bring the Ph close to 7. Over the course of a week it slowly deteriorates and drops down to the upper 5's or lower 6's. If it's in that range I use PhUp to bring the ph back up closer to the upper 6's. It would take a lot of it to get it to 7 so I'm happy to keep it there. Since I change my water 75% weekly (remember I'm adding water of 9.0 but adjusting each bucket) Then I start over with Neutral Regulator during water change time and add PHup as needed during the week. Once I made the horrible mistake of adding my straight 9 ph water without the Neutral Regulator and that high ph killed half my fish over a period of 10-15 minutes. Some were just unconscious for a few minutes and came around others just died. So I got to see what would happen if I tried keeping them all in a 9 PH water. I do have plants in each tank but not a heavy amount - I think adding more plants would help wth the ph in tank.

Our cities KH is : 5.3 with a range of 2.60-7.7 - mine is right on the medium
Our cities GH is 10,6 with a range of 6,14-15,6 - mine is right on the medium
Our cities PH is 9,4 with a range of 8.5-9.9. - mine is 9,4

So there are more options until you can get some plants. Plants have helped keep my water stable but hasn't fixed everything,
 
Hey guys, thank you all for your thoughtful responses - I really appreciate all of them.
I will do a little more work on trying to stabilise the pH without the use of chemicals and if alll fails I’ll either re-home the guppy or use a bit of help that Jan referred to.
Thanks again!
 
I have the oppisite problem you have, my water is hard and I have soft water tetra and cory so I use RO water to help soften my water. I keep them in my "soft water" tetra tank. I keep my guppies in a separate hard water tank. If you want to keep your guppies it would be wise to have another tank for them and any other hard water fish. It is actually easier to harden your water than soften it. The most important thing when it comes to PH is to have it stabilized and not jumping al over the place.
 
Hey guys, thank you all for your thoughtful responses - I really appreciate all of them.
I will do a little more work on trying to stabilise the pH without the use of chemicals and if alll fails I’ll either re-home the guppy or use a bit of help that Jan referred to.
Thanks again!

This is not going to work, as I tried to explain in my earlier post. Your water is what it is, so select fish suited to your water and everythbing will be fine.

Jan's method of dumping chemicals in the tank is why her fish all died. You cannot do this.
 

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