6.5 PH!?!?! gonna need a little help on this one.

king_neptune

Active Member
Ive been noticing my dads nano slipping in thelast week. Hes faithful on WC. He does 5g a week.
But things are turning sour. I finally stepped in and checked the water...sure enough i spotted a problem instnatly. Water hardness is at the top end of the scale....not sure thats the culprit since we both are using the exact same water source and RO-DI system, and my tank is flourishing. And hes WAY more faithful on WC than me.
However the PH is incredibly low: 6.5
Heres his setup:
2 small clown fish. 1 med lawn more blenny. 4 hermits. 2 small snails. Couple assorted frags, and a hammer torch. Algae is really at a minimum considering how young his tank is(3months) and the Lawnmore blenny is a healthy happy eater.
Basicly its a light bio load.
For filtration he has an HOB filter that has a basic carbon pad.
30lbs of LR(most of it was well established and covered in purple).
10lbs LS.
Macro algae(and its beginning to bleach now).
Also he uses Chemi-pure/purigen/filterfloss in the back chamber of the nano tank, so as far as im concerned hes actually doing more than enough considering how minimal his bio-load is.
So im open for ideas. His PH needs to stabalize. Im pretty adamant that that is why his tank is deteriorating.
I use the same water and Im always at 8-8.2
Im thinking a kalk drip, or kalk reactor, or even maybe dosing with pickling lime...but I want to treat the problem, not the symptoms. Help me think here folks, Im missing something.
 

bmkj02

Member
Sure that test kit is still good?? Never seen one that low. I had a Nitrate test kit that for some reason should off the charts reading on my girlfriend's tank but on my tank it was okay. When I took it to the LFS my readings were all wrong and had a bad kit
 

beaslbob

Well-Known Member
PH is low because carbon dioxide is high. Also be sure to measure pH just before lights off or at least several hours after lights on.
I would stop using any chemicals and test ammonia/nitrates. If nitrates are low then the macros are starving and I would consider getting nitrates up untill the macros recover. Or do nothing and they may recover anyway. If you do have measureable nitrates they let the macros recover or try other macros.
I am sure that iF you get the macros in control the pH will rise quickly. As the tank becomes a net consumer of co2 and producer of oxygen in each 24 hour period.
my .02
 

sepulatian

Moderator
I agree on high carbon dioxide being a contributing factor. I didn't see mention of power heads being used. The HOB filter will add oxygen to the tank, but unless that oxygen is distributed throughout the tank, you are going to have oxygen poor water and dead spot areas.
 

pezenfuego

Active Member
Carbonic acid only has a pH of about 5.7. I highly doubt this is the primary culprit, but it could be a contributing factor. Make sure that there is adequate water movement on the surface. Aeration occurs at the surface, so if there is absolutely no surface disruption, the pH can go down pretty far simply due to the increase in carbon dioxide. Look into getting a second opinion on that test. I have four questions about the test. I would like to know what brand of test, drops or strips, pH range, and what color range did you have.
 

king_neptune

Active Member
Originally Posted by bmkj02
http:///forum/post/3253349
Sure that test kit is still good?? Never seen one that low.
Ill use one ofmine. Good input. But even if the test kit is bad....the tank is slowly dying. So something is wrong.
Originally Posted by beaslbob
http:///forum/post/3253352
PH is low because carbon dioxide is high. Also be sure to measure pH just before lights off or at least several hours after lights on.
I would stop using any chemicals and test ammonia/nitrates. If nitrates are low then the macros are starving and I would consider getting nitrates up untill the macros recover. Or do nothing and they may recover anyway. If you do have measureable nitrates they let the macros recover or try other macros.
I am sure that iF you get the macros in control the pH will rise quickly. As the tank becomes a net consumer of co2 and producer of oxygen in each 24 hour period.
my .02
Amonia and Nitrates are 0. So I need to remove the macro algae since its simply starving and increasing the PH?
Originally Posted by sepulatian

http:///forum/post/3253461
I agree on high carbon dioxide being a contributing factor. I didn't see mention of power heads being used. The HOB filter will add oxygen to the tank, but unless that oxygen is distributed throughout the tank, you are going to have oxygen poor water and dead spot areas.
Sorry, 2 Hydor powerheads. Oposite sides facing inward, and one slightly up for surface agitation. Also the meager return pumps are also directed upward for surface agitation.
Originally Posted by PEZenfuego

http:///forum/post/3253486
Carbonic acid only has a pH of about 5.7. I highly doubt this is the primary culprit, but it could be a contributing factor. Make sure that there is adequate water movement on the surface. Aeration occurs at the surface, so if there is absolutely no surface disruption, the pH can go down pretty far simply due to the increase in carbon dioxide. Look into getting a second opinion on that test. I have four questions about the test. I would like to know what brand of test, drops or strips, pH range, and what color range did you have.
I re-adjusted the heads so there is even more water agitation at the surface. AS for the test:
#1. API brand
#2. Strips
#3. 6-9 PH range.
#4. Yellow-Red (it measured mostly yellow with a slight orange tint in the middle. So I calculate beetween 6(yellow) and 7(orange). AKA 6.5
In the end
Sounds like the Macro algae needs to be removed since the tanks filtration is out performing it. Since the surfae agitation is already good there was little to do to improve it...but I did increase it just the same. Ill see if this works. THanks.
 
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