PH help, desperate

[wesleydnunder]

Your lfs should be able to order a KH test kit for you. KH is the water's alkalinity; it's capacity for neutralizing acids and maintaining it's PH. Sounds like yours is low. The good news is, once you determine that the KH needs a slight adjustment up, it's easy to do.

Mark

 

[FreshyFresh]

Yep, mail-order the GH and KH kits or any of the big chain pet stores carry them. I'd stop using any additives to adjust pH as well. I've never done it, but to me that's an endless tail chasing session.

 

[Turbosaurus]

I have very soft water- that means my KH (AKA carbonate hardness/buffering capacity/resistance to pH drops -drops in this case- buffers can be alkaline (high pH) or acid (Low pH) but in tap water generally refers to alkaline buffers and resistance to pH drops) is very low, so any organic acids(from waste or drift wood, like tannins or phosphates) or mineral/inorganic acids from rocks or substrate (I had this happen once with play sand) doesn't have anything to offset it...

If your water is coming out of the tap at 6.8 I think a KH test kit is superfluous- that's low, and means your KH is low too-

Do you have municipal water or well water? If its municipal go to your town/city web site or call their help line, they are required by law to publish water quality reports, they'll send you a copy or you can download one online that will give you results for the whole years regular water testing and they use better test kits than you can buy at your LFS.

If you have well water with a water softener that would explain a lot...

that being said- stop messing with your pH. Its a recipe for disaster. Let your tank find its natural equilibrium and leave it there. Too much emphasis is put on pH when the reality is ion content is what really matters- pH is only one measure, H+ vs OH- ions- and is almost worthless in and of itself when you consider the almost endless supply of ions that started out attached to those H and OH. Endlers especially will adjust to a wide range of ion concentrations- but it must be relatively stable. The more you mess with it, the worse it is for your fish. Stability is key.

 

[Astarell]

I appreciate the advice guys. It seems to have stabilized now, it was 6.8 when I came home last night, again this morning, and still there tonight so I think the danger has passed. I'd just really like to figure out what caused it in case it happens again. I understand what you're all saying about kh affecting the ph, but if it was a case of low kh why wouldn't it effect all the tanks instead of just the endlers? The goldfish are fine and they got a whole new tank while this was happening so if it was the water they should have been experiencing the same intense drops. Two of the others got water changes and their ph didn't alter either. I will get a kh kit to test in the future though, it's usefull to know that there are more parameters to check; I'm just not convinced that's the problem.

 

[Greggz]

If I didn't have a planted tank, I wouldn't be too concerned about kh & gh. Unless of course, like you, you see big drops in ph. Very low kh can make for unstable ph.

In a planted tank, knowing your kh & ph is more useful. There is a calculation to determine CO2 ppm, based on the relationship between kh & ph. In my tank, my kh is very high, with very stable ph. However, my gh is very low, and I use a gh booster at every water change.

Hope your tank continues to stabilize, and your fish do well.

 

[FreshyFresh]

If I didn't have a planted tank, I wouldn't be too concerned about kh & gh. Unless of course, like you, you see big drops in ph..

That was my thoughts with the recommendation. Having the GH and KH test just so you can verify your tanks stay in the same range as your source water.

When I bought my API GH/KH kit (both come in one kit) from my grossly overpriced (and now closed) LFS, the kit was $8.50. It will last me beyond it's expiration date.

 

[Kaliska]

PH up and down are not very reliable. They nearly always just bounce the ph around which is even worse for the fish. If you are going to mess with water parameters I prefer seachem products. Neutral regulator is quite reliable and if you want to keep a lower ph you can put it with acid buffer or discus buffer. It can also take the place of prime in most cases.

In addition to Neutral Regulator’s™ superior buffering capacity, it will remove chlorine and chloramine, bind ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate, stimulate slime coat production, and buffer the pH to 7.0

If you can't get things outside of your local stores someone mentioned that cuttlebone is a natural source of calcium carbonate. Quick google search says 85% calcium carbonate. You would have to carefully measure ph while dissolving cuttlebone to see what it will do before you know how much it will take or where it will stop dissolving cuttlebone fast enough to impact ph any further. But you'd probably have to do that with crushed coral too.