pH In Water Keeps Dropping.

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Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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Re: pH In Water Keeps Dropping.

Post by StriGoi »

lesleyanndunn wrote:what about the suggestion of coral sand to up your ph?
was suggested to me, and it does it slowly?

Hmmmm... Coral sand. Sounds and i think i know what it is. Do you have any pic for referral?

Iam currently using grade3 gravels. (that's what they call it here)
It's kinnda in between fine sand and those medium sizes ones.

Thanks again guys for all ur replies and concern!
Really appreciate it.






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Re: pH In Water Keeps Dropping.

Post by autophotos »

get some coral rock and move out the driftwood - that should increase and stabalise your ph level
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Re: pH In Water Keeps Dropping.

Post by Pufferpunk »

There is plenty of other decor to use, other than driftwood.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

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Re: pH In Water Keeps Dropping.

Post by StriGoi »

autophotos wrote:get some coral rock and move out the driftwood - that should increase and stabalise your ph level

Hi autophoto, sorry for asking some noobish question.

Isn't coral rock for saltwater?
I did a google picture search on coral rocks and as a matte of fact long time back i wanted to get it for my setup.
But since our fishes are scales-less , iam always afraid that it may cause damage to their body.
My puffy is easily spooked and at times she might just do a sudden dash into no where. I am afraid that if i were to intro coral rocks it might bang into it. Would it?

Any preferred coral rock that you would recommand?
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Re: pH In Water Keeps Dropping.

Post by StriGoi »

Pufferpunk wrote:There is plenty of other decor to use, other than driftwood.
Care to share some natural decos?.....

Why i used DW is because it's close to their natural habitat.
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Re: pH In Water Keeps Dropping.

Post by Flutter »

There is fake driftwood and mangrove root decorations which would be suitable. You could also try some live or fake plants. I found Google very helpful for setting up a biotope for our irrubescos. It's not perfect but it's pretty good.

Combine all of those and you could have a nice setup :)
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Re: pH In Water Keeps Dropping.

Post by StriGoi »

Flutter wrote:There is fake driftwood and mangrove root decorations which would be suitable. You could also try some live or fake plants. I found Google very helpful for setting up a biotope for our irrubescos. It's not perfect but it's pretty good.

Combine all of those and you could have a nice setup :)
Hey, my ever first puffer is a Irrubesco and a lorteti.....

Thanks for the tip, i'll try google'in for it.

Cheers!
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Re: pH In Water Keeps Dropping.

Post by Flutter »

Not a problem, here is a site I found helpful:
http://fish.mongabay.com/biotope.htm

There were others but they were all specifically for Asian blackwater.
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Re: pH In Water Keeps Dropping.

Post by J-P »

I find this strange .. my PH keeps climbing and I have tonnes of driftwood. I also have some dead coral (decoration) and sea shells (decoration) and lots of rock in there.

I haven't found out if the culprit is the shells, rock, or coral. I also run CO2 which is supposed to drop the PH.
if you follow me, you avoid stepping in the crap that I just did...

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Re: pH In Water Keeps Dropping.

Post by StriGoi »

J-P wrote:I find this strange .. my PH keeps climbing and I have tonnes of driftwood. I also have some dead coral (decoration) and sea shells (decoration) and lots of rock in there.

I haven't found out if the culprit is the shells, rock, or coral. I also run CO2 which is supposed to drop the PH.
PRECISELY DUDE !....

I found VERY odd too....

Hence i post the problem here.

Read that the ideal pH for them is 7.8~8.8 and i can never reach there... LOL.....

My drift wood have been boiled in water twice for almost 6 hours each.
Could that be the problem?
I did the that is because i didn't want the DW to tarnish the water too much and disinfect it .
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Re: pH In Water Keeps Dropping.

Post by StriGoi »

J-P wrote:I find this strange .. my PH keeps climbing and I have tonnes of driftwood. I also have some dead coral (decoration) and sea shells (decoration) and lots of rock in there.

I haven't found out if the culprit is the shells, rock, or coral. I also run CO2 which is supposed to drop the PH.
I have a place up at Ontario Mattherson.!
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Re: pH In Water Keeps Dropping.

Post by StriGoi »

Flutter wrote:Not a problem, here is a site I found helpful:
http://fish.mongabay.com/biotope.htm

There were others but they were all specifically for Asian blackwater.
Thanks for the link!

Cheers!
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Re: pH In Water Keeps Dropping.

Post by J-P »

Cool! Actually I have been to Singapore and Malaysia many times (mostly Borneo, Sandakan)

But try different things. A flux in PH is bad. Some shells might bring the PH up or rock ... try one at a time (a little at a time) and see how it goes.

Now on the shells part .. don't get the curly shells... they trap microbes and can kill the tank. Try the flat scallop type. Also keep in mind that those shells have residual salt in them. Try 1 or 2. See if it helps. Similar to dried coral. It also has microbes and salt that could adversely effect the tank. Proceed with caution.
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Re: pH In Water Keeps Dropping.

Post by Pufferpunk »

This forum was originated by a 14 year old Malaysian kid.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
StriGoi
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Posts: 161
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2010 9:36 pm
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My Puffers: 13 x MBU
1 x Congo.
1 x Palembang.
2 x Lorteti.
1 x Modestus.
Location (country): I am currently Working In Singapore, visits Malaysia, Business Trips To Indonesia, Taiwan, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Thailand.
Location: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan.
Contact:

Re: pH In Water Keeps Dropping.

Post by StriGoi »

J-P wrote:Cool! Actually I have been to Singapore and Malaysia many times (mostly Borneo, Sandakan)

But try different things. A flux in PH is bad. Some shells might bring the PH up or rock ... try one at a time (a little at a time) and see how it goes.

Now on the shells part .. don't get the curly shells... they trap microbes and can kill the tank. Try the flat scallop type. Also keep in mind that those shells have residual salt in them. Try 1 or 2. See if it helps. Similar to dried coral. It also has microbes and salt that could adversely effect the tank. Proceed with caution.

Hey J-P, Next time round when you are visiting Singapore give me a holla.

you know, when you told me to buy the corals, i did so immediately cause i'm anxious to fix this problem, so i bought this red looking coral which the LFS says its a "dead coral". Upon reading this, i got the wrong coral than.

The flat scallop kind you are talking bout is white in color and has lots of straight lines on it right?

Anyways the red coral bought has so much "white residue" (which i assume is salt) even that after soaking it in water for 3 days now, nothing has change. I am afraid of introducing it into the tank. So hence no corals yet.

The problem still persists, but it is dropping at a very much lower rate.

Is there anything to do with my filter system?
Can't be right?


Cheers!
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