What is changing my PH

acocacolagirl

acocacolagirl

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Dec 2, 2004
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I am still doing my fishless cycle (its been weeks and weeks and weeks...but at one point I thought I was on my way, but I must have done something wrong, because then it seemed I was back to no amonia disappearing...anyway, that is not the problem at the moment) but my PH keeps going low. I will admit I only checked it a couple of times during the first couple of weeks because it was remaining stable, and my other tank has been stable at 7.5 since I set it up a year ago. There are some rocks in the tank that were not from a lfs so I suppose it could be them, but I did test them with vinegar, and then again with some hydrochloric something that I can't remember at the moment. And there was no reaction. I have no live plants in the tank. The other rocks in the tank are slate, and gravel which looks like standard subterate, but I dont know where it came from as I bought the tank used - but I washed it with water and amonia before setting up the tank and I think I even tested it just to be sure. So is there something else that makes PH go down? Or is it one of my rock types? As always, thanks for the input.
 
What's the KH? Without adequate KH--3 ppm at least--the biological processes will reduce the buffer and drop the pH. If it goes too low, it can inhibit the ammonia consuming bacteria, stalling out the cycle.
 
I don't even know what KH is and I definately have not been testing for it.
 
It's important--really important for a fishless cycle. KH is the measure of the calcium buffers in your water, which determines are stable your pH will be at a specific value.
 
pH crash

If your KH is low, then you add a lot of ammonia, the biological processes will create acids that, will burn through your buffer (assuming that you had any to start with). As that KH goes lower, the pH becomes unstable and crashes. If you test for pH you may see it at the bottom of what your tester willmeasure. Note, if you can test down to 6.0 pH and you read 6.0 pH, you may actually have 5.0 pH and not know it.

Best suggestion is to do a partial water change. This ought to add some buffer to the tank, assuming your tap water has any buffer, it might not. You need to test, any cheap test kit will be fine. Your local fish store may test for free. If your tap water is low in KH, below 3 or 4 degrees (~80ppm) then you need to invest in a tester and keep an eye on it.
 
I had a similar situation with a fishless cycle going nowhere for three weeks (ammonia constant @ 3 ppm w/o adding any) and a KH reading of 0. Somebody recommeded adding baking soda. I added 2 teaspoons for my 10g and my KH got to a sutiable level. Within two days my nitrites shot up and nitrates starting appearing.

I'm far from even being a novice...just passing along what somebody recommended to me on this site that seemed to get my fishless cycle moving.
 
I added baking soda right away when I discovered my PH was low and I got the ph up to normal and started seeing more change in the ammonia levels again, but the PH continues to drop a little bit every day - I just keep adding baking soda. I am going to the lfs today. So I will look for something to test the KH. But will these things stablize as I work with them doing water changes ect? I assume my tap water is ok as I never had a PH problem with the other tank. Is this just part of getting the cycle right, or could it be I have decor that is not good for the water?
 
It could be that the decor in the other tankis helping to buffer the water, it could be that the cycling process is just producing way more acids than the system can handle but that a normal bio-load won't have this problem. Hard to say without knowing some numbers.

And, to correct my inept comment: calcium levels are not related to pH. Carbonates, which include calcium carbonate, are buffers and relate to pH, but calcium alone is not part of the equation. (Thank you, RTR--you're always a gentleman about my gaffs.) for those wishing to learn more, please check out the article forum.
 
hmmmm well. Had a very unsuccessful trip to the lfs. They had no KH test to buy, and the person helping me seemed to not know a lot and was not very friendly, so I didn't even want to ask if the store did tests. I will just have to drive out to the good lfs where the people actually know what they are doing and talk to them. But....not today. Too far away.

Well, thanks for all of the help.
 
OrionGirl said:
It's important--really important for a fishless cycle. KH is the measure of the calcium buffers in your water, which determines are stable your pH will be at a specific value.
Click to expand...

I thought that was GH?
 
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