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I'm setting up a 50gal freshwater aquarium. Just got it up and running Monday afternoon.

The majority of the contents came from a previously setup/established 30gal tank that I took down. So it has established gravel, live plants, some rocks, couple pieces of small drift wood. As well as an established sponge filter.

In the 50gal, I've added a marineland emperor 400 power filter, as well as some more large rocks. I've currently got a 150 watt heater in there as well.

Here's the deal, I tested my water chemistry levels today, thinking I could go get a few fish to get things started.. but things aren't right .

My pH is 6.2, Nitrite 0ppm, Nitrate 10ppm, and I need a new Ammonia testing kit so I don't have that result yet. Also chlorine/chloramines was reading zero too.

I'm on city water (metro area), with a very high pH (just retested today it's at least 8.8 straight out of the tap). Usually my fish tank water gasses off and goes down to the low 7's for pH.

Does anybody have any idea why the pH is sooo low in this tank, and what I should do about it? I'd like to get this stable, so that I can set it up with fish soon.

If I forgot any pertinent information just ask !..
Thanks ,
~Rae~

Have you done a kh test? Or even a gh test would give an idea of hardness. It may just be that your water is actually very soft and once it settles it doesn't have enough buffering capacity to hold the ph that high. A small amount of natural acids from the driftwood or fish waste decomposing could be enough to drop the ph if the kh isn't high enough. As long as the ph stays at 6.2 without going up or down frequently or continuing to drop over time I probably wouldn't worry about it too much but if you do a kh test and find it's below 3-5 it would be best to buffer the water a little. Adding a little baking soda to water changes is the easiest way to do that but make sure you have a kh test so you aren't just guessing.

hmm guess those are some tests I've never had/tried..... I don't have gh or kh test kits.

I should re-test my established 10gal I have downstairs.... not sure what the pH is there now. But in the past it was fine.

I'm hoping to make it to a LFS tomorrow, and get some new kits anyway, guess I'll see if they have those. And/or if they would test my water for me while I'm there.

I don't 'mind' if the pH is going to be 6.2, I'll just plan the fish around that... but if it's not.. then I need to get it stabilized so I know what it'll be.

Anyone else have something to add?

Hello

You can always try a chemical formula to increase the pH of your tank. My water out of the tap is usually pretty low, so I usually have to add some to my Mbuna tank. Several companys make them and they are available at most petshops. I can't think of the brand name off hand, but the kind I buy has a picture of a paradise fish on it and just says "pH increaser" and it works great ^_^

I hope that helps!


Inky

Okay it took me a while to get my test kits replaced.

My pH is 6.4 now (I did a 25% water change a week ago).
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 10ppm

KH 1 drop (17.9?)
GH 8 drops (143.2?)

I have added 6 hardy Danios to get the tank cycle going more steadily (there was tons of beneficial bacteria from my previous tank though).

Any thoughts on where/how to proceed from now?

From that test your water is extremely soft. 1 drop which is 1 degree will not buffer your water hardly at all. As soon as you add decaying fish waste, leftover food, any driftwood, and other natural acids the ph will plummet. In fact with that low of a kh it could potentially drop below 6.0. The easiest way to buffer a tank is to use plain baking soda. I would start adding enough baking soda to bring the dkh(degrees carbonate hardness) up to 3-5. Safest way is to add it to your water change buckets to buffer the new water and do small water changes of around 10% until the tank is buffered. That will also keep the ph in the low 7s. You'll have to experiment using your new kh test kit and a few ph tests to find the exact amount of baking soda to add.

As for cycling the tank bacteria starts to starve within 24hours with no ammonia source. If you've left the tank sit for the past couple days with no fish, decaying food, or liquid ammonia added then your pretty much starting with nothing for a cycle. The plants will help some but you'll have to add fresh filter media or gravel from your established tank to really shorten the cycle a noticeable amount. You need to add fish or some fish food within 24hours of seeding a tank to keep the bacteria alive and start the cycle.

an alternative to using a whole lot of baking soda is to buy some shells from the LFS, shells buffer the PH, and is often used in cichlid tanks to keep the PH up at proper levels. you can buy small ones and mix them about in the substrate or buy bigger ones and place them around to double as hiding places.

Renegade545,
king of the frontosa