Aqua-Soil and pH crash: Will tetras survive?

T

tackful

AC Members
Mar 15, 2007
649
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18
Sausalito, CA
I tore down my 29 gal tank in order to replace the large gravel substrate (Floramax) with Aqua-Soil. In a few hours the pH dropped from 6.8 to 6.4. Next morning it was 6.0, which is the lowest my kit will read, and I now have 0.25 ammonia. I have added some Eco-Start to help with the bio-filter, and will do a 25% water change. Plan to continue with this process as needed. Is there anything else I should be doing? So far all the tetras seem fine, but I'm a bit worried.
Thanks for the help. Tackful
 
keep up with the water changes to keep ammonia down, i.e. test daily at least and change whenever you see ammonia registering at .25ppm. You probably lost some of your biological filter in changing the substrate.

When I do a water change on my tank the Ph directly afterwards reads about 7.4 - 7.6 and hits 7.8 again a few hours later. The fish seem to handle that shift ok, so I wouldn't worry too much about the Ph change. I think shock arising from Ph swing comes on pretty instantly and your fish seem to be doing ok.
 
The fact that you replaced your substrate probably had more to do with the spike in ammonia than a pH crash, since a significant amount of bacteria lives in the substrate. Just do a water change when necessary and the biofilter should catch up to the bioload in a couple of days.
 
I hadn't thought of that, but it makes perfect sense. Glad to hear that the fish have already been through the worst of it. Thanks, Tackful
 
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