Low PH 5.5

[nfiliou]

I am getting very frustrated with my tank. 

I've already killed two fish- I'm thinking due to battle wounds- and now my PH suddenly plummetted.

But strangely, my fish, snails and shrimp are doing fine.  In fact, I just dicovered that one of my female platies had babies!!

The only change was a water change yesterday and the light in my tank was not put on until 1:00pm this morning (I always have it on at 6:00am)- I have live plants.  Could this have caused the drop?  My PH was at 6.5 yesterday.

Thanks again guys!!

Nat

[Nerine]

what is your tap water testing at ? are you on city or well water? ph will drop as time goes on...and your ph could have been lower to begin with?

has your tank fully cycled too? I think I missed a post or two is it a fairly new tank?

[fischkopp]

A few more questions: How big is your tank? What exactly lives in it? How is the tank filtered?

[nfiliou]

Sorry about the lack of info.

It is city water and has a neutral PH.

My tank is about 1 1/2 months old.  I just added quite a few fish since I had just wanted three platies, but because two were males then had to get three females, but then my two males died (I'm now thinking battle wounds/stress) so am down to four platies.  I had also added 5 zebra snails.  So my nitrite went up a tad- 0.3- did water change yesterday (PH6.5) and then tonight.
 
When I posted earlier, my PH was at 5.5, so I did a 20% water change and added 1/4 tsp. of baking soda to my 20 gallon tank.  I didn't want to stress out the fish any further so was thinking of doing a very gradual addition of baking soda- from what I read, you're supposed to do 1 tsp per 5 gallon, so I should have put 4 tsp, but was too scared to screw it up any further so I only added 1/4 tps for 20g.

Nitrate is 10, nitrite is 0.3, ammomia is 0 and NOW PH is 7!  So everything seems ok again- I'll have to check again tomorrow morning.  I worry about these fluctuations- I know it's not good for the fish!

So in all- 20g with 4 platies (+2 babies ), 7 rasboras, 1 large apple snail (+5 babies ), 5 zebra thorn shrimp, 4 ghost shrimp and 2 rock shrimp.  I also have one live fern plant and just added two shells this weekend to further buffer my water since it was reading 6.5 last test.  I doubt the baby platies will survive (surprised there's only two) and am already a bit above my quota on fish so...

Thanks for any advice-info,

Nat

[fischkopp]

The Ottawa city water is very soft (GH 4, kH 2-3). Provided a tank doesn't have substrate or decoration that raises the hardness, the pH tends to settle just around 7, and is slowly dropping. This happens because the nitrification (the bio filtration) is an acidic process. A high bioload will have a higher rate of nitrification, and hence produces more acid that let the pH drop. A dangerous mark for low pH is 5, as the bacteria in your bio filter will stop working, nitrite accumulates and can cause severe problems to the fish.

I have seen this happening in my tanks, some densely stocked tanks reached a pH well below 6 only half a week after water changes. The only way to avoid this is either reducing the bio load, do more water changes or increase the water hardness (buffer).

I can imagine that this happened in your tank, although it is not really over stocked. Keep feeding on the low side, and keep up the weekly water changes and you should be ok. Baking soda as quick remedy was a good idea.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

[nfiliou]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I did a 20% water change last night and retested this morning- my nitrates have fallen to 5 and my nitrites are below 0.3.  My PH is 6.5 and my ammonia is nil.  I've started to test morning and night and my PH is 6.5 in the morning and 7 in the afternoon.  I'm wondering if this is due to my plants (hornwort)?

My fish are eating voraciously- can't seem to get enough- but one of my rasbora's top fin is not moving, but laid back and it seems to have some kind of white holding it back in place- and just seems tired?  Then one of my black tuxedos seems ok physically, but is spending all of his time at the top-corner of the aquarium.      I wish I knew what was going on- poor things!!

I don't want to medicate as I"ve got my shrimp and snails- so have heard that tea tree oil might help- I might try this.  I've added some salt and when changing water have added the recommended dose of Stress-Zyme+ and Big Al's water conditioner.

I'm going to do a bit more research on hornwort- maybe my plant is diseased?

Will post with updates.

Thanks,

Nat

[dan2x38]

Another thing - just shells won't really affect buffering. They would need to be broken down in an acidic environment to release anything enough to affect pH or KH. Using something more like a little crushed coral in the end of pair of cut off pantyhose stuffed in your filter or under the output will work better. Remember if you use this method give the bag a rinse in tank water when rinsing other filter media it holds detris & mulm too so can affect pH negatively eventually & cause higher nitrate (NO3). By the way if you wanted a handful of crushed coral PM me I can give you a little bit - not easy to get small amounts in LFS.

You want to make sure you vacuum the gravel during water changes too. The detris & food can build up in the substrate and pull down the pH and KH. This happened to me in a tank once I lost some Hillstream Loaches (need higher pH) I was sad love those little guys. Any ways I digress... LOL This build-up takes a little bit longer usually more than a month - just something to watch.

Other note how is the nitrite (NO2)? It is more dangerous than ammonia (NH3). This needs to be monitored and addressed for sure.

Hope the little ones are doing fine and the tank has settled in.

[nfiliou]

Hi again,

So did more tests for my 20g:

PH-6.5
Nitrates-5
Nitrites-0.3
ammonia-0

Noticed that my one sick rasbora has lost some of his fins- so sent hubby out to get tea tree oil.  My black tuxedo platy is still looking ok, but still just swimming at the surface in the corner.  All my other fish are going swimming around trying to find food.  I'm feeding once a day only, but I did add one small piece of algae wafers (which the platies and snails LOVE!!).

My hornwort is doing fine, but a few of the "needles" are looking brownish- I'm going to wait and see if it gets better, but heard that flourish might help.

So I'm going to do another 20% water change tonight- and I do clean out some of the gravel, but not too much as I didn't want to get rid of all the good bacteria and send everything back into a cycle.  I make sure to add the recommended dose of Stress-Zyme+ and Big Al's Water conditioner for the water being replaced as well as a bit of aquarium salt- again, only for water being added.

Everyone else in the tank seems to be doing well.  My one large snail is active and his shell is growing nicely- as is the 7 babies (the count on these keep going up- when they get a big bigger I'll be giving them away so if anyone wants 'em, let me know!!).  My rock and ghost shrimp are doing well- eating and molting without any problems.  Even the 2 baby platies are doing good (haven't gotten eaten yet!).  My three other platies are eating the algae wafer at the bottom I put this in in the morning) and my poor rasboras are looking for food!!


Just not sure what I'm missing/doing wrong.  I guess with more experience/time.

Thanks for the crushed coral dan- I'm in the Outaouais area (Aylmer)- whereabouts are you? 

Nat

[nfiliou]

Well, did a water change- added salt and 10 drops of tea tree oil to my 20g.  And then noticed today that, yes, fin rot.  I think it came in with the platies that I bought last weekend.  Plus my nitrites have been high this week (0.3) and my PH has been fluctuating a lot.  Two of my rasboras fins are disapearing and turning white along the edges.  Plus all the added stress of water changes, etc.

I'll obviously have to continue the daily water changes and will clean out the bottom with a better sweep) and am only feeding once a day (but will now have to buy more food to ensure it is fresh).  I'm hoping the tea tree oil will help- or should I medicate?  I have shrimp and snails in the tank. 



Nat

[nfiliou]

Well, I'm down to two platies, from my original 6, and one of them isn't looking so good (no spots, no fungus, but looks very tired).  And I've also lost one of my rasboras- and two of them, though very active, have lost one of their fins each.  It's so sad to see them suffer and then die!!!   And of course all at my hand!!

I'm on day five of the tea tree oil treatment.  I've also added salt, upped the temp to 84 and lowered my water line to better aerate the water.  I have to do another water change today- and I make sure to vaccum the gravel as well and that the new water added has the water conditioner and Stress-Zyme.

My parameters are all perfect- amm.,0; nitrites,0; nitrates,-5 and PH, 7.5.

The white spots on the fish are gone- but I've read to continue treatment for ten days afterwards (i.e. temp).  I'm still watching the fish closely for fin rot.

So hopefully all will get better soon.

Nat