What's Going On?

[Man of fish]

I did my daily water test today and my ph was rather low as my nitrates. My nitrites and ammonia were both zero but my ph was 6.6 and nitrates 4. Why did this happen? I tested my tap water and the ph was 7.8 and ammonia 0.10 and nitrites I didn't test nor nitrates. I then did a w/c and now ammonia and nitrite are 0 ph is 6.9 and nitrates are still 4. My tank has been established coming up on 6 months now. I'm about 3 weeks into restocking the tank after a tank wipeout. What could of caused this drop in ph and nitrates. The ph was usually 7.4 and nitrates 5-15.
My stocking is this:
29 gallon tank
2 platys 2 female
3 Molly 2 female 1 male
3 otos
1 hitchhiking black mystery snail
1 fry I couldn't catch
(2 preggo females(1platy 1 Molly))

The pregnant females (the platy and Molly) are included in the stats.

That's 8 fish 1 fry and 1 snail.

 

[minnnt]

Have you got any wood in the tank? What substrate are you using and are you dosing any co2?

 

[Man of fish]

I have one piece of small driftwood, I'm using petco aquarium gravel, I'm not dosing co2

 

[minnnt]

The wood may be reducing the ph a little.

 

[This Old Spouse]

The wood wouldn't make the pH crash, though. How are you testing the water? With what kind of kit?

 

[Aqua Tom]

Wood only lowers Ph by about 1 so wont be responsible for a Ph crash.

Tom

 

[minnnt]

I did say a little!! Its hardly a crash.

Have you let the water rest for 24 hours in a glass and then retested it?

 

[This Old Spouse]

7.8 to 6.6 is what I would consider a crash.

 

[minnnt]

I wouldn't. If its stabilised at 6.6 then what's the problem? Just stock accordingly. Leave the water to stand in a container over night and the ph would be better matched.

Simples.

 

[Man of fish]

I use a API master test kit. No I haven't left water for 24 hours. I'll try that ph is at 7.0 right now so not sure what caused the crash. Usually my ph is around 7.3- 7.5 but 7.0 is good in my book.

 

[minnnt]

The fish you keep will tollerate 6.6 anyway. The Mollies would probably like it a little higher, but it's not much of an issue. 7 would be fine.

 

[Man of fish]

Ok after my w/c everything started to go back to normal. It was 3 days overdue on my weekly so who knows but all is well now my fry are doing good, my plastic box qt tank not so well. Only one fish left. Temp. In there is usually 75-77 but no heater. (it's a box with a sponge filter. My heater is a 7-up bottle with hot water 2x a day. ) only 1 neon left in there. They were sick when I bought them then all but the one good one died. He's going home today. (the pet store)

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Neons for whatever reason, are highly sensitive to immature tanks. So, unless the QT wasn't matured itself for roughly 6 months, then that is probably why they are all dying. Certainly you don't want to just bang them into the main tank if you can quarantine them. But at the same time, you can't drop them into a newly set-up QT either and expect good results. It's a bit of a catch-22, I'm sorry to say.

 

[Man of fish]

Well I returned the last neon so he's good now. The other 4 died of disease. 2 had gill flukes and 1 discoloration. 1 I guess just died. I understand they are sensitive. When I returned them the guy was like hmm they're usually hardy and I had to explain they are sensitive from inbreeding. I got 5 cardinals instead and plan on getting 3-5 more next week when they get more in.