Ph Level Very Low

[PlatinumAngel]

Ok have a cycling 75 gallon tank. Ammonia levels high but using Ammo Lock NiTRITES are high. But all of the sudden PH dropped today Help. I need to know how to raise it.

 

[kim03333]

hi, i'm not an expert but the reason you have experienced a ph drop may be due to using the ammo lock. i am assuming your tank is cycling with fish otherwise you would have no reason to use it. the best way to bring the ammonia and nitrite levels down is with water changes. i've been told it's perfectly safe to do as much as 90%, just be sure to use water conditioner. how much has the ph dropped by? what are the readings from your tap and from your tank? i have to be honest, i'm not sure how to go about raising the ph as we don't know exactly what the cause is but you must use chemical products that alter the water chemistry with caution.

 

[PlatinumAngel]

hi, i'm not an expert but the reason you have experienced a ph drop may be due to using the ammo lock. i am assuming your tank is cycling with fish otherwise you would have no reason to use it. the best way to bring the ammonia and nitrite levels down is with water changes. i've been told it's perfectly safe to do as much as 90%, just be sure to use water conditioner. how much has the ph dropped by? what are the readings from your tap and from your tank? i have to be honest, i'm not sure how to go about raising the ph as we don't know exactly what the cause is but you must use chemical products that alter the water chemistry with caution.

Sorry, my spouse posted this and I didn't know they did.
Anyways, the ph was down around 6.2, or by going by our sticky thing, close to 5.4 Yes we're cycling with fish. It was normal, around 6.8 or so.

 

[minxfishy]

Do you have your complete water test results please? Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate being most important.

If you are cycling with fish, your aim is to keep the ammonia and nitrite 0.25ppm or below for the health of the fish.

Ammo Lock is known to give false ammonia readings, so i would stop using it and perform daily 50% water changes, as many as required until the levels are safe for the fish. Test your water after an hour or so of doing a water change, if the levels are still not 0.25ppm or below, then it is safe to do another 50% water change. Try to keep the water going back into the tank roughly the same temp as the water in the tank so as not to stress the fish.

The ph could be a false reading, or be effected by the ammo lock or could have crashed due to the cycling, the water changes will bring it back up to normal.

Edit to add; On the first water change, you may want to slowly add the water back in, if you have had a ph drop, then the fish need to acclimatised back up to the normal ph range or you could shock them. Trickle the water going back in over the course of an hour to slowly raise it back up. After that if another water change is needed, you can be a little quicker with the re-fill.

 

[PlatinumAngel]

I don't know the exact numbers, but I know my nitrate/nitrites are high. I think nitrate was 40 and I can't remember nitrite, but it was lower than it was. Ammonia we're using ammolock so those results wont be true.
We WERE doing daily wc of 30% or so but had to medicate for a fungal infection.
we never had these problems when setting up our old 25 gallon I'm almost starting to regret getting this tank.
Getting conflicting information from people and I'm not sure what I should be doing for sure to get this all resolved.

So basically, back to daily wcs? Did you say I should do another wc if in an hour or so the levels are not at 0.25?

 

[minxfishy]

The regarded safest level for fish is obviously 0 ammonia and nitrite, but getting it to 0.25ppm is acceptable whilst the tank is cycling.

Dont worry about the nitrAtes, 40ppm is not that high, anything up to 100ppm is considered ok, obviously the lower the better but some people have 40ppm coming out of their tap water.

Yes daily water changes are the only course of action to get the water correct and yes I would do another water change if the levels were not below 0.25. The water changes will not hurt the fish, but the ammonia and nitrite will. As I say just try to temp match the water going back in so as not to shock them, anything within 2 -3 degrees is fine, it doesnt have to spot on but close is good.

 

[PlatinumAngel]

Yeah I always try to get as close as I can for the temp match. Just getting so frustrated as we've had it up for 5 weeks and still doing this. I know cycling can take longer, but geesh.

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with minxfishy - in fact, excellent advice by minxfishy. Getting ammonia and nitrite quickly down between zero and 0.25ppm is always of overriding importance - even more important than gentle pH or temperature shocks to the fish, so larger and more frequent water changes, especially right after the elevated levels are discovered, is the correct action.

Yes, water changes can be done as soon as an hour later. Extra chemicals should not be necessary and will only confuse the important readings.

Test strips are not reliable and really should just be tossed. A good liquid-reagent based kit is very important. Nutrafin mini-masters are good and the one often used here on TFF is the API Freshwater Master Test Kit. Most members in a situation like you are in would be using this morning and evening to test ammonia, nitrite, pH and occassionally nitrate.

One of the core great things about TFF are the writeups and advice about Fishless Cycling, pinned in the "New to the Hobby" forum section. Not performing a fishless cycle sets you up for disease, which can then mess up an already labor intensive "fish-in" cycle. The cycling process can cause pH crashes in a tank with low KH. When fishless cycling this can be easily remedied with baking soda, but in a "fish-in" cycle process, you are more limited to either refreshes from the water changes if your tap water has the right parameters, or else possibly introducing crushed corel in the filter to slowly counter the low KH situation.

Good Luck!
~~waterdrop~~