The nitrifying bacteria are far less efficient below 6.0 and some physiological processes for fish, such as sodium uptake, are inhibited.
If the test kit only registers 6.0 or higher and the actual pH is dipping below that then the OP may have issues. Other than that and say having fish/inverts that are much more sensitive to said conditions then not much point in bothering with the exact levels...
Yes, having some issues. I've been accounting for all kinds of things that could be causing the issues for many months now - slow process- and theorectiacally at least, raising the ph a wee bit would/could help with some of the issues.
issue 1, when I first posted the query, the water was so soft that the snails were disintegrating faster than they could reproduce!
They have since been doing somewhat better, I tried (and yes I did try doing research first, just couldn't find much) at least a few months ago, maybe it was Jan or March when I started, adding some calcium to the water, I thought it would help there shells. The only calcium I could find was - ok I don't hve the bottle with me, but I
think it's called 'Seachem Reef calcium.' Which is obviously not normally intended for freshwater lol, but it didn't have a lot of ingredients in it so I thought I'd give it a try.
The calcium does seem to have helped somewhat, with the shells, and other effects noticed:
Some of the plants perked up a little shortly after starting the calcium - even though I later found out that the calcium for plants is calcium sulfate (if I remember correctly), and not the kind in the bottle, so perhaps they were affected indirectly somehow instead of directly?
Also noted after begining calcium experiement, the water hardness had previously been around 75 and below when tested, after regularily using the reef calcium - the colors are a little hard to tell apart but - the hardness has increased to about 150 (gh?), occassionaly possibly 300, so I've dialed back a bit. I found out more recently the other 2 ingredients affect water hardness, of which my source water is very low on.
(I now have a whole bunch of baby quilted melanies.
And the nerites shells aren't turning all chalky and pitted.)
The bottle says - for saltwater - to start at 5ml for 20g. I started with 2ml / 29g.
Oddly enough, 2 of the smaller tanks have also increased the ph and alkilinity (kh?) since adding the calcium, they both run about 7 and 7.2 ph, and are almost... I think it was 80? nearly alkilinity, which is the highest alkalinity level of all my tanks.
The rest of tanks, including the 29g are usually about 40.
"I would try adding Tetra Easy Balance to your tank." -
I do use easy balance, it has raised the ph about .4 lol. I think it was below 6, and when the test says 6 all the time.. . I've got to wonder ya know? That's one of the reasons I'm a little concerned, if it raised it to 6.2/6.4, then what was it before?
The tank just seemed to be happier -for the short time is was at - about 6.8.
I think the novaqua also had some other stuff in it, I don't remember at the moment if it had declor or not, I haven't looked at it in a while, I just thought if I was going to try it for it's other stuff, I wondered if it's claim about ph was true.
