Ph :-/

[Shelster]

I have a 180litre vision tank. I have had nitrate problems which have meant I have been buying in my water from local fish store. Now my nitrates are under control on taking in a water sample to get some more fish, have now discovered my PH was very acidic. I bought 'tropic Marin re-mineral tropic' and only added half of what I was told to, and did it over a period of an hour to prevent shock. This was last night. I have now checked ph before adding the rest, and have found it has now shot up to 7.6 ish / I have glowlight tetras, pepper corydoras, Pakistani loach danios and two other tetras I'm not sure what they are. Do I need to water change again and not add the buffer to try to dilute a bit or will it be ok and ring my local fish shop tomorrow? Thanks in advance and apologise if something similar has been posted before, I have only just joined forum.

 

[fluttermoth]

I would leave well alone. Swings in pH can be very hard on fish, and they've already had one, another one might be too much.

I would continue with your normal water changes and stop adding the buffer altogether. None of the fish you have need a high pH; although what was it before you added the buffer?

Welcome to the forum btw

 

[Shelster]

Oops, sorry I never said! It was 6.0 so very much the other way, hence why I took great care in adding slowly over an hour. Ugh, so glad I never added the whole 12 scoops like I was meant to. Thanks for the advice most of the fish I have are hardy so i am hoping they will be ok. This fish keeping business is hard. Fingers crossed then

 

[fluttermoth]

A pH of 6 isn't really that bad for the fish you have.

Out of interest, have you tested the pH of your tap water? You need to leave it to stand for 24 hours, as a lot of water companies add things that temporarily alter pH to prevent pipe corrosion; normally CO2, but can be other things.

Knowing that will at least give you a 'baseline' of what you're dealing with.

 

[Shelster]

Thank you, yes we are just in the process of sending a sample from our bore hole (excuse spelling) to have it evaluated. I live in Cornwall and think water here is the lower end of the scale anyway. But was told my tank ph was off the chart / wanted to get an ancistrus to help with the algae growth on stones etc. . . But obviously want the tank under control first. Have been playing with water levels for two months now. Was so pleased when nitrates were sorted, but then something else! Oh we'll, all part of fish keeping I suppose.

 

[The Taffy Apple]

Thank you, yes we are just in the process of sending a sample from our bore hole (excuse spelling) to have it evaluated. I live in Cornwall and think water here is the lower end of the scale anyway. But was told my tank ph was off the chart / wanted to get an ancistrus to help with the algae growth on stones etc. . . But obviously want the tank under control first. Have been playing with water levels for two months now. Was so pleased when nitrates were sorted, but then something else! Oh we'll, all part of fish keeping I suppose.

Then you will have very similiar water out of your tap as mine. Being across the channel from you means i get very soft water from my tap, making my tank water prone to 'PH crashes'. Although it isn't that important to my fish, it is more concerning to the health of my beneficial bacteria in my filter, they hate it. To combat this i use crushed coral in my external filter and small 'crops' of it scattered around my tank.
Instead of, as fluttermouth states, messing around with off the shelf products (the 'PH control' products are a complete waste of money) maybe you could try the same as what i do, but a sure way would be to test your tap water with a KH/GH test first. I would put money on the results.
Good luck.

Terry.

 

[Shelster]

Thanks Terry, we have sent off a water sample yesterday for analysis. Do you buy the coral from from aquatic shop? I've never heard of this technique but willing to give anything a try

 

[The Taffy Apple]

Thanks Terry, we have sent off a water sample yesterday for analysis. Do you buy the coral from from aquatic shop? I've never heard of this technique but willing to give anything a try

)

A simple KH/GH test kit (i use API master) only costs a few pounds on eBay, this will determine your starting point... all fishkeepers should have their own full test kit anyway, and if you don't have one currently then it is strongly recommended you invest in one

Yes,I bought a small bag of it at a local Aquatic store, cost me about 15 pound and i change it gradually over 12-18 months as it very slowly dissolving yet still harbouring beneficial bacteria (the coral in my filter itself though, obviously).

Terry.

 

[Shelster]

Yes I have the same test kit at home. It was that that initially alerted me to our nitrate trouble. We need to send off to a specialist company for human testing as they are more accurate. Going to buy some coral on next visit as now my ammonia is high, so need to get that under control before the introduction of any new fish. THEN hopefully all will be sorted. Hope so, tank has been established for 12 years but want to look at some new fish enjoying it now. Thanks for the advice, appreciated.

 

[snazy]

You need to test the tap water Ph after it stays for 24 hours as previously suggested because you might have just had a Ph crash. Do not touch chemicals raising your Ph and do not even use crushed coral now because if you've had that tank for 12 years without issues previoulsy, the tap water and it's buffering capacity is not your issue. Crushed coral is safer option to raise your ph if you need it to, but it will keep it quite high to over 8ppm. If that's your goal, then go ahead but start with a very small amount first to avoid ph spikes. Personally, I'd wait to see what your water parameters are like first.
The API test won't show anything below 6ppm so when you test the Ph the test will lock itself on that level but in reality the value could be even lower.
Taking into account that the tank is 12 years old and you've had recent nitrAte issues which normally naturally lead to a ph crash and then ammonia issues suggest your tank is suffering from "old tank syndrome". High amounts of accumulated nitrAtes are caused by high amounts of ammonia in the first place, which is caused by high amounts of organic waste in the tank. These processes are naturally acidic and in time will crash anybodys tank's Ph if the tank is not handled and maintained correctly.
You need to start doing daily small water changes with a good gravel vac to remove as much dirt in the substrate as possible. Over time, you can slightly increase the amount of water changed at a time, and eventually the tank will be "clean" again, the water will slowly go back to the quality of the tap water, the Ph will stabalize and then you just need to do weekly water changes with gravel siphoning to stop it from crashing again.

 

[Shelster]

Thanks for the reply snazy. We initially 8 weeks ago have been doing 30% water changes every 3 days to try to get nitrates in order. We then found out the water we were putting back into the tank was causing the trouble as it was 200 / this was from our tap hence the water being sent to a specialist company for investigation. I have been since then buying Ro water from the aquatics shop. Our Ph has always been acidic but I always take in a water sample to get checked before purchasing any fish and hadn't realised that I was meant to be buffering the water I bought from them hence it was off the scale acidic. I am hoping our tap results will be back soon as I am buying water in for myself to drink from too. I was going to use the crushed coral when the PH lowers when I do the water change without adding any more chemical buffers to their shop bought water (which is now 30% once weekly) it is at 7 at the moment. I have an excellent gravel cleaner siphon type gadget which does the job. Just think with all this rain we have been having it has washed all the field fertilisers into our bore hole hence the high nitrate reading /