# PH fell to below 6 and my fish are stressed is my driftwood



## noeldeleon (Nov 29, 2011)

After a long time of not owning an aquarium, my 12 year old son has re-awakened the passion for fishkeeping and I recently purchased a 55 gal freshwater tank. Here is my issue..I woke up one morning to find my fish were lethargic and my oscar fish had his fis all torn up. after placing the oscar in a 10 gal quarentine tank, I had my water tested and the PH was very low and the ammonia was high. I have two big pieces of driftwood I purchase in the tank and was told it was the cause of the drop in ph. I bought a test kit, beneficial bacteria to help lower ammonia and API PH up chemical to add to the water. I did some reading on the subject and found it is not good to alter PH chemically so only 1 dose was added to tank. I tested my PH and it is at 6.4 , ammonia is at 0.50 , nitrite is 2.0 and nitrate is 40. My question is...Should I remove the driftwood in order to raise the PH( I read that a PH below 6 will cause the beneficial bacteria to die and ammonia to rise) or add crushed coral limestone or other PH raising ornament to stabilize the ph. I would rather not remove the driftwood because my fish are already used to hiding under and in it and i dont want to stress them out anymore than they already are - any advice would be appreciated


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## Nodalizer (Nov 7, 2011)

The driftwood certainly wouldn't have helped, but what is your aeration like ?

I would be surprised a change like that could happen with constant areation in the tank. So look at how much airation you have and get back to us. And can you use a php test kit now to test your tap water ? Also you should use the new kits to test the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate yourself. Although with Nitrite in the water the nitrate measurment is probally wrong anyway. You need the ph up, and it looks like you are gong to need to buffer your water with that driftwood in there, go buy a KH and GH test kit (should have these anyway .. KH is very important).

But first do the three things below, these are safe adjustments that will buffer your water to stop it falling any more.

1) add an airstone, or if you do not have one, then make the powerheard or filter outlet a bit above the water so it it really chopping up the surface.

2) add 4 teaspoons for baking soda premixed in tank water.

3) add 8 teaspoons of epson salts also premixed in tank water. This will raise you GH.

That should have you stablised for a while until we work out what some of your levels are.


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

Nodalizer said:


> The driftwood certainly wouldn't have helped, but what is your aeration like ?
> 
> I would be surprised a change like that could happen with constant areation in the tank. So look at how much airation you have and get back to us. And can you use a php test kit now to test your tap water ? Also you should use the new kits to test the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate yourself. Although with Nitrite in the water the nitrate measurment is probally wrong anyway. You need the ph up, and it looks like you are gong to need to buffer your water with that driftwood in there, go buy a KH and GH test kit (should have these anyway .. KH is very important).
> 
> ...


I would first check the pH of the tap water. Then do a water change to get the ammonia down. After the water change I would slowly start to try raising the pH. So I would do the water change first then go with the 1,2,3 as Nodalizer mentioned.


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## Bruce Haynes (Sep 8, 2010)

Was this tank cycled before you added fish? Cycling without the addition of already seeded filter material can take 6-8 weeks.


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## Nodalizer (Nov 7, 2011)

13razorbackfan said:


> I would first check the pH of the tap water. Then do a water change to get the ammonia down. After the water change I would slowly start to try raising the pH. So I would do the water change first then go with the 1,2,3 as Nodalizer mentioned.


I would not concider raising ph much at all IMO. The ammonia is much safer at the current ph, what i said to do would be the safest thing to do for the moment, it will raise the ph slightly, but more importantly it will buffer the tank so the ph will be more stable.

I would be interested to know how its going, its been a while since the frist post.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Let's see what the pH is first...from the tap. OP said he experienced a drop to 6.4.

If the tap pH is good for the particular fish, then maybe he just needs a buffer to keep it stable. Like crushed coral in the filter.


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## noeldeleon (Nov 29, 2011)

thank you for your response, I dont have an airstone in the tank and the there is barely no movement on the water surface so I will add an air stone today. I cycled the tank using beneficial bacteria additive i purchase from my lfs and added a few small bala sharks and cichlids but the tank is only 4 weeks old so the cycle may not be complete. I tested my tap waters PH and it was 6.6 right out of the tap but I will let it sit for another day and re-test to make sure it was acurate. On a good note my fish seem to be doing better, they were out of hiding and eating again.

I will add the baking soda and salt when i get home today and keep you guys updated .I will also buy a KH GH test kit and post the results

thanks again for your help and let me know if you need anymore information.


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## Nodalizer (Nov 7, 2011)

They will get worse again, if your at the fish shop I would buy some prime declorinator , its seachem product and on top of being very concentrated you can use it to make that ammonia and nitrite safe for the fish while you are cycling. It seems like its expensive at first .. but you get a lot of use out of that one bottle as opposed to other brands.

*NOTE:* I would hold off on the baking soda right now until your tank is fully cycled. While your PH is steady at 6.6 its making the ammonia a lot safer for your fish. The air stone will act as a buffer to keep the ph from falling in the mean time. The baking soda was incase your ph had crashed, but it seems stable.

---------------------------

When your tank is fully cycled we can talk about how to buffer using baking soda and espon salts. No point talking about it now, ask again in a few weeks when that tank is safely cycled. If your PH has held at 6.6 with no surface agitation and the problems your having on top of large pieces of wood, I would guess you have some level of buffer in the tap water anyway, so you can test the KH and GH of your tap water and I am fairly confident it will have a reading.

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## noeldeleon (Nov 29, 2011)

Ok i will hold off on the baking soda as suggested. one thing to clarify is that the PH from my tap water is 6.6 but the PH of the tank water is at 6.2 which is down from 6.4 just 2 days ago. and thats after adding API PH UP 4 days ago. i had my water tested this weekend at my lfs and was told it was below 6 which caused my alarm because i read that a PH below 6 will cause the beneficial bateria to die and ammonia to rise

in any case i will buy the seachem product you suggested and keep a close eye on my fish for now. is the tank fully cycled when the ammonia is at 0? or does the nitrites and nitrates have to be at 0 also to consider the cycling process complete?


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## Nodalizer (Nov 7, 2011)

> one thing to clarify is that the PH from my tap water is 6.6 but the PH of the tank water is at 6.2 which is down from 6.4 just 2 days ago. and thats after adding API PH UP 4 days ago.


Ok, I would add the baking soda then. Add one each hour *monitoring your kh* at the end of the hour. If you hit 4 KH or over, stop there. Do not add more then 4 teaspoons, because 4 should give you suffient buffer in your size tank for the moment, you don't wanna over buffer right now, its just to hold it as low as possible but stable.



> read that a PH below 6 will cause the beneficial bateria to die and ammonia to rise


Yes it is an alarm for sure if it falls that low.



> is the tank fully cycled when the ammonia is at 0? or does the nitrites and nitrates have to be at 0 also to consider the cycling process complete?


It is hard to tell with fish in the tank, but your cycle should be finished when ammonia and nitrites stay at zero for 48 hours.

Normally when fishless cycling your cycle is finished when one drop of ammonia is completed converted to nitrate within a 24 hour period.


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## noeldeleon (Nov 29, 2011)

you are a wealth of information Nodalizer and it is well appreciated. I looked into the Seachem prime and it seems to be just what i need to reduce the stress onmy fish. I am on my way to the petshop on my lunch break, but now I feel confident that i am moving in the right direction instead of blindly searching for an answer thanks again.


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