Ph Question & Algae

[justintoxicated]

Well all the readings from my tank are extremamly good as of now.

I only have 2 Problems which may not even be problems.

Currently I have 4 Guppies, 4 ghost shrimp, 2 mystery Snails, and 2 African Dwarf Frogs in a 10 gallon planted tank. I am using Hagen C02 Kit also.


1) my PH keeps dropping to ~ 6.5 Will this harm any of my animals? If so what is the best way to correct this?

2) I'm starting to get some algae, the snails might not be doing enough work on their own but it is not a problem yet, it just seems to be growing on the leaves of my plants and nothing else.

I also have algae growing in a planted Terrarium / Aquarium. The water will not cycle in this tank even after I added media from another tank. The bioload is huge from the Frogs and newts in about 3 gallons of water. What can I do to get rid of the algae growing on my plants?

I read about some stuff stronger than activated carbon, I was thinking about putting some of this stuff in my zoomoeds turtle tank filter that is used for the 3 gallons in the terrarium, woudl this help in sucking out enough amonia to get the tank to cycle so I can add snails to take care of the algae problem?

 

[Roan Art]

Currently I have 4 Guppies, 4 ghost shrimp, 2 mystery Snails, and 2 African Dwarf Frogs in a 10 gallon planted tank. I am using Hagen C02 Kit also.

1) my PH keeps dropping to ~ 6.5 Will this harm any of my animals? If so what is the best way to correct this?

2) I'm starting to get some algae, the snails might not be doing enough work on their own but it is not a problem yet, it just seems to be growing on the leaves of my plants and nothing else.

So long as you are using CO2 your pH will drop. That's what happens when you inject CO2. What kind of lighting do you have over the tank? How long do you keep it on?

Do you have a KH/GH test kit? If not, get one ASAP because when you use CO2 you really need to monitor the pH and KH.

As for the algae, it could be many things. You could be overfeeding, too much light, not enough CO2 and so on.

Until we find out what your pH, KH and GH are, along with the lighting information, it's all a hit or miss guess.


Roan

 

[justintoxicated]

The Co2 is a Hagen kit, not really sure how to measure the level it is putting out. There is a bubble every few seconds and the diffuser seems to be working well (bubble is almost completely depleted by the time it gets to the top of the diffuser)

I plan to get the KH Test kit this weekend (don't have time during the week)

Lighting is a 28 watt PC bulb. so I guess about 2.8 watts per gallon. Light is on a timer for about 12 hours a day but I sometimes turn it on when I get home for an hour or 2 more.

The Ph was dropping to this level before I even started the C02 injection though. I did add a piece of Malaysian Driftwood. I think thats what it was called but the guy at the LFS said it would not affect the PH or anything in any way.

Gravel is Flourite I don't know if that affects anything.

The setup is pretty new but I pulled a filter from my amphibians terrarium so the tank cycled fast, water seems to be in great shape other than the 6.5 PH. 0 ammonia 0 Nitrite, and about 5ppm of Nitrate. At least i think thats good, im a newb...

is a 6.5 PH hard on any of my fish or creatures? I did lose 2 Guppies, one was acting flakey and just seems to have died for no reason (was not eating though) and the other seemed to be missing a fin from something, then came home to find it dead and missing all it's fins.


Thanks for the help,
JI

 

[Roan Art]

The Co2 is a Hagen kit, not really sure how to measure the level it is putting out. There is a bubble every few seconds and the diffuser seems to be working well (bubble is almost completely depleted by the time it gets to the top of the diffuser)

I plan to get the KH Test kit this weekend (don't have time during the week)

You can calculate how much CO2 it's putting out using the KH number with the pH number.

Lighting is a 28 watt PC bulb. so I guess about 2.8 watts per gallon. Light is on a timer for about 12 hours a day but I sometimes turn it on when I get home for an hour or 2 more. The Ph was dropping to this level before I even started the C02 injection though. I did add a piece of Malaysian Driftwood. I think thats what it was called but the guy at the LFS said it would not affect the PH or anything in any way.

Well, he misinformed you Yes, it will affect your pH and make it drop. While you are getting the KH kit, ask them if they will give you a couple of handfuls of crushed coral to take home to buffer your pH for the CO2 injection. Having your pH drop to 6.5 is kinda low when we don't know what your KH is.

Gravel is Flourite I don't know if that affects anything.

Nope, that's all good stuff.

The setup is pretty new but I pulled a filter from my amphibians terrarium so the tank cycled fast, water seems to be in great shape other than the 6.5 PH. 0 ammonia 0 Nitrite, and about 5ppm of Nitrate. At least i think thats good, im a newb...

is a 6.5 PH hard on any of my fish or creatures? I did lose 2 Guppies, one was acting flakey and just seems to have died for no reason (was not eating though) and the other seemed to be missing a fin from something, then came home to find it dead and missing all it's fins.

6.5 is kinda low, which is why the crushed coral is good. It'll dissolve and bring the pH and KH up and make things more stable in the long run.

I'm going to ask OrionGirl to move this thread to the Plants Forum where it belongs.

Roan

 

[echoofformless]

The CO2 as stated, will drop the pH.

The driftwood will certainly drop it as well.

Now as far as the animals you have, they'll be okay in that pH.

CO2 injection has an effect on carbonate hardness, which is the buffer that keeps pH stable. Now all fish are generally okay within the 6.4-7.8 range so long as the water stays stable. It's when you get pH fluctuations that the fish become stressed. These fluctuations are caused by the CO2. I can't recall the exact process, but what happens is that the plants begin feeding on the dissolved carbonate in the water and this resulting reduction causes the pH to shift more easily. But again, as long as the pH is staying stable at 6.5 and your carbonate hardness is at a good level, I wouldn't worry so much. If your KH is low, there are many ways of dealing with this. Only please keep in mind to never use products like pH Up or anything that artificially alters pH or hardness.


Now algae is a problem that almost every planted tank will encounter while getting balanced. Here are some solutions:

Make sure you have a huge plant mass. That way the plants will outcompete the algae for nutrients. They will utilize the CO2 and become the main consumers of the nutrients in your tank, thus leaving algae with little to do but die off.

Remember that algae is a constant feeder whereas plants can store nutrients for certain amounts of time. That means that if you cut off ferts or eliminate things like phosphates and nitrates, plants will suffer only a little but algae will die off.

Don't overfeed; you'll ensure that you aren't causing excesses of organics which algae will use as a food source for itself.

You can't really depend on snails (or any other creatures for that matter) to take care of an algae problem or even prevent it from happening.

Technically, I can see you're running your lights a little long. Try reducing the daylight part of the 24 hour cycle to about 9 or 10 hours a day, including a 30-60 min break at about the 6th or 7th hour. That is said to discourage algae growth.

So say is the lights come on at noon, then around 6 or 7 have them go off for the break, and then come on again until 9 or 10 o'clock.



Finally, my personal opinion is that algae's just a fact of life. Besides, it's perfectly natural and in many ways beneficial to the aquarium. As long as it doesn't grow so thick on the plants that it kills them by starving them of light, I see no reason to worry about it so much.

I find it odd that we go through all of this trouble to create a "natural" looking environment for our fish and then wage a war on something that is found in abundance all throughout the natural habitat we are trying to emulate.