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Ph is lowering by the day
Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 4:14 pm
by DANthirty
Hi everyone hope your all well
for the past couple off weeks ive noticed my ph is dropping in my zebby tank, so i have stopped using ro water and been using dechlorinated tap water for my water changes, the lowest it has reached was 5.8 my tap water is around 7.6, but the readings seem to be going down by the day. any ideas why?
Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 7:18 pm
by Guest
Hi Danthirty,
I too have the same problem. The reason I believe, is that the hardness "buffer" in the water is being counteracted by the endproducts of a good filter sytem. I am given to understand that nitric acid which is one of the end products of the filtration process is causing the ph drop. This situation is actually worse either with a high fish load or high feed rate.
The solution is one of the following
1)to make more water changes if doing 50% tap and 50% RO
2)Increase your tap water content in the water changes if your tap water is hard
3)Add a small amount of a calcium type granule in your filter system to counteract the drop in ph.A lot of discus keepers using a centralised system use the last method. I have just bought some made by TMC, called Coarse Tropical Marine Gravel,which is used in Marine tanks.
Regards,
Des.
Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 7:23 pm
by Des
Danthirty,
The above post was mine.
Didnt check that I wasnt logged on.
Des.
Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 12:09 pm
by Adam
Hi Dan,
I was experiencing the same problem to a lesser degree than you though.
The PH of my tap water is anything between 7.4 and 8, it varies according to what additives the water authority puts in. Over the period of a week my PH use to drop to 6.2. As Des says good filteration, heavy feeding and stocking ratios are all contributing factors.
I managed to stabilise my PH at 7 by increasing the frequency of water changes from 7 days to every 3/4 days. I guess I could have opted to use more tap water instead of the 50% tap water RO mix but I preffered to increase the water change frequency instead, I guess it would be easier to use a buffer as suggested. Just remembered I also increased the amount of water changed from 20% to 50%.
My community tank is extremely prone to ph swings due to the amount of fish in there so water changes consist of 70% tapwater and 30% tap water. If you play around with your RO mix, water change frequency and the amount changed you should be able to stabilise your PH.
Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 7:34 pm
by Barbie
IME, zebras handle hard water MUCH better than they do pH swings. I'd just switch to more tap water in their tanks. Mine are having fertile spawns at a TDS of 270 and more. The pH has YET to fall below 7.8 in that tank. The only time I've ever lost zebras was when I crashed the pH in a discus tank I had them in. That's just my experience, but I'd save the RO water for simulating rainy seasons, personally.
Barbie
Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 7:41 pm
by McEve
I had a PH of 5, by accident, when my Zebras had their first spawn. It was the water supplier that suddenly decided to lower the PH.
This doesn't mean that that the Zebras will handle a PH crash, this info is simply to make the picture more balanced