PH Emergency

cheseboy · 09-22-2005, 03:41 PM

I think I have a Ph emergency. I haven't tested my Ph in a little while so after I did my weekely water change, I looked at my tank's PH and it was like 6.3! My Kh is also 2. Before that I notices that my snails where on the bottom, they where alive but not moving and in their shell. Plus their shell looked a little weak. Then 3 baby frogs died. The snails are probly gonners the main thing I want to save is frogs. So I think I'm going to try to do 10% water change every day with the water's PH at 7.0. I beleve this will only bring the PH up a little because of the KH. Though I really have no idea.

. So if you guys could help me that would be great.

**Damon** · 09-22-2005, 04:18 PM

Your snails should be fine in that ph. Mine are. If it really bothers you try adding baking soda when you do waterchanges.
http://www.drhelm.com/aquarium/chemistry.html
This link is also a sticky on the forum.

cheseboy · 09-22-2005, 04:30 PM

Well the snails just stay in theit shell and do nothing now. I think that is because of the low PH though I have no way of knowing. Also more frogs could die since it is out of their range for PH. I would really like to get my Ph to 7.0 or at least ideal before I go increasing the KH. I was when I get to idea or 7.0 make the Kh high to prevent Ph changes. Plus I just hav problems with the snail's shells at that acidic water. My bananna plant also is pretty partictilar to 7.0 and ubove. I know it's alot for a few snails, but i would like them to live.

EDIT: sory I just recently found out that baking soda can be used to raise kh and ph lol.

shev · 09-22-2005, 06:05 PM

PH GH and kh are all intertwined. hard to change one without affecting the others. 2 dh kh is really low. I'm betting your GH (which your snails will appreciate slightly harder water for the calcium for their shells) is also pretty low. are you running co2? what are the params of the water from the tap? Im pretty sure kh only affects how hard it is to lower your ph. if your water kh is similar to your tanks it means you will need to do larger and more frequent water changes to remove any waste since with such a low kh your water will be susceptible to combining with the nitrogenous waste to form nitric acid, lowering your ph. you could filter over limestone to increase gh, kh, and ph. but remember the ph scale is like the richter scale. a ph of 7 is 10 times as acidic as 8, and 6 is 100 times as acidic as 8. so even a small change in ph can stress fish. try to not change more than .3 ph daily.

**Cichlid Man** · 09-23-2005, 03:26 AM

By the way, that's perfect water for cardinals and discus.

cheseboy · 09-23-2005, 01:42 PM

Yes, my GH is also low. I used to have c02 though I took it out right away when I saw that my ph was low. I don't want it to get any lower. My snails are still not actice and will eventually starve if they do not eat. The water from the tap is about 7.2. Though one time I tested the water I was going to put into my tank and it was about 6.9 and the only chemical I put into it was conditioner. But I might be wrong. I think it might be a combo of the co2 and nitric acid that out did the buffer in the first place. Plus my tank was kinda overstocked and I wanted to make the filter media last a month for the carbon to ware off. But I guess I diden't see the conciqunces of doing this. Should I replace the media now? I guess it's all in the process of learning.

5 frogs out of 14 dead dead

Though I think there will be no more deaths now.

cheseboy · 09-23-2005, 04:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by http://www.drhelm.com/aquarium/chemistry.html

Ways to raise the pH
· Aerate the water, driving off the carbon dioxide (CO2)
· Filter over coral or limestone
· Add rocks containing limestone to the tank or use a coral sand substrate
· Use a commercial alkaline buffer
----------------
Ways to increase kH:
· Adding sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). One teaspoon of baking soda added to 50 liters of water can raise the kH of the water by approx 4 OdH without a major affect on pH.· Adding an air stone to increase surface turbulence driving off carbon dioxide (CO2)
· Adding commercially available products to increase buffering capacity

How much will the ph increase if the KH goes up about 4. Aince I want to do a slow and stead Ph raise and I have never tried to raise PH before.

Thunderkiss · 09-23-2005, 08:02 PM

How long has the tank been up and running with frogs in it, and how many did you add at once? There is no reason they shouldn't be perfectly happy in that pH.

bananas · 09-23-2005, 08:08 PM

most snails cannot handle much lower than 7.0 pH

7.2 or above is ideal

6.3 is a good way to kill off your snails

cheseboy · 09-23-2005, 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thunderkiss

How long has the tank been up and running with frogs in it, and how many did you add at once? There is no reason they shouldn't be perfectly happy in that pH.

The tank has been up and running with frogs for about a year. They where perfectly happy at first until my PH droped alot. I think the frogs that died, died from the sudden drop in PH. THough I would like to bring my PH to the correct range for frogs. Finally someone who understands me, bananas you are crrect. Snail's shells start dissolding at 6.9 and happen quicker the lower they go. MY snails are still alive but they are moast probably goners.

Thunderkiss · 09-27-2005, 09:10 AM

"most snails cannot handle much lower than 7.0 pH

7.2 or above is ideal

6.3 is a good way to kill off your snails"

Never seen this to be true. Ponds can regularly get to 6, and every snail i've ever dropped into the pond have done nothing but grow like weeds.

Georgia Peach · 09-27-2005, 10:00 AM

I would not add more than one teaspoon daily of soda - run a full scale of tests the next day - thats what I done. I made the mistake one time of adding a few doses throught the day and it really threw my tank in the other direction. It took quite a while to undo the damages

cheseboy · 09-27-2005, 02:16 PM

Well I've stabilized my tank for now, and are slowly raising the KH and PH. I added limestone to my filter. I might add baking soda once a week in addition too.

**Damon** · 09-28-2005, 08:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thunderkiss

"most snails cannot handle much lower than 7.0 pH

7.2 or above is ideal

6.3 is a good way to kill off your snails"

Never seen this to be true. Ponds can regularly get to 6, and every snail i've ever dropped into the pond have done nothing but grow like weeds.

I'd have to agree. Just ask the snails in my planted and apisto tankss. The ph in those is a constant 6.4. PH really doesn't bother snails. GH is by far more important. Even moreso the ca level. One can have a higher GH with little to no ca or mg (but not both).

cheseboy · 09-29-2005, 08:07 PM

Probably, Now I thinking it was just the sudden PH change that killed the two smallest ones. Since I last checked my PH was 6.5, my KH was 0 and my gh was very low. I'g gonna need to reise the KH slowly for water change time so I don't change it like .5 by adding the 7.2 water. Instead of baking soda, in addition to the limestone I am adding Kent Marine liquid calcium (Need to use it up) so it will help raise the GH witch will raise PH and KH. Also snails arn't really that pretty outside of their shells, when you pull them out, when they are dead.

Wow, this incident is really making me understand the importance of PH alot more.

09-22-2005, 03:41 PM	#1
cheseboy Freshwater Shrimp Dude Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Behind you Age: 16 Posts: 340	PH Emergency I think I have a Ph emergency. I haven't tested my Ph in a little while so after I did my weekely water change, I looked at my tank's PH and it was like 6.3! My Kh is also 2. Before that I notices that my snails where on the bottom, they where alive but not moving and in their shell. Plus their shell looked a little weak. Then 3 baby frogs died. The snails are probly gonners the main thing I want to save is frogs. So I think I'm going to try to do 10% water change every day with the water's PH at 7.0. I beleve this will only bring the PH up a little because of the KH. Though I really have no idea. . So if you guys could help me that would be great.

09-22-2005, 04:18 PM	#2
Damon Aquatic Naturalist Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Dayton, Ohio Age: 32 Posts: 14,982	Your snails should be fine in that ph. Mine are. If it really bothers you try adding baking soda when you do waterchanges. http://www.drhelm.com/aquarium/chemistry.html This link is also a sticky on the forum. __________________ For in much wisdom [is] much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. Member of the AGA (Aquatic Gardner's Association) Member of the IBC (International Betta Congress)

09-22-2005, 04:30 PM	#3
cheseboy Freshwater Shrimp Dude Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Behind you Age: 16 Posts: 340	Well the snails just stay in theit shell and do nothing now. I think that is because of the low PH though I have no way of knowing. Also more frogs could die since it is out of their range for PH. I would really like to get my Ph to 7.0 or at least ideal before I go increasing the KH. I was when I get to idea or 7.0 make the Kh high to prevent Ph changes. Plus I just hav problems with the snail's shells at that acidic water. My bananna plant also is pretty partictilar to 7.0 and ubove. I know it's alot for a few snails, but i would like them to live. EDIT: sory I just recently found out that baking soda can be used to raise kh and ph lol. Last edited by cheseboy; 09-22-2005 at 04:39 PM.

09-23-2005, 03:26 AM	#5
Cichlid Man Super moderator Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 2,100	By the way, that's perfect water for cardinals and discus. __________________ If you have a big enough tank with enough hiding places, pH of around 7, you can keep virtually any fish together as long as all the fish are around the same size and these two groups of fish are avioded: Serrasalmus Tetradon(figure eights and dwarfs are the exception). I keep a successful community of fish in a 4 foot tank including the following families: Cichlids, tetras, loaches, gouramis, barbs, rainbows, livebearers, killiefish, catfish, puffers.

09-23-2005, 01:42 PM	#6
cheseboy Freshwater Shrimp Dude Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Behind you Age: 16 Posts: 340	Yes, my GH is also low. I used to have c02 though I took it out right away when I saw that my ph was low. I don't want it to get any lower. My snails are still not actice and will eventually starve if they do not eat. The water from the tap is about 7.2. Though one time I tested the water I was going to put into my tank and it was about 6.9 and the only chemical I put into it was conditioner. But I might be wrong. I think it might be a combo of the co2 and nitric acid that out did the buffer in the first place. Plus my tank was kinda overstocked and I wanted to make the filter media last a month for the carbon to ware off. But I guess I diden't see the conciqunces of doing this. Should I replace the media now? I guess it's all in the process of learning. 5 frogs out of 14 dead dead Though I think there will be no more deaths now. Last edited by cheseboy; 09-23-2005 at 01:53 PM.

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09-22-2005, 06:05 PM	#4
shev Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Montana Age: 19 Posts: 1,561	PH GH and kh are all intertwined. hard to change one without affecting the others. 2 dh kh is really low. I'm betting your GH (which your snails will appreciate slightly harder water for the calcium for their shells) is also pretty low. are you running co2? what are the params of the water from the tap? Im pretty sure kh only affects how hard it is to lower your ph. if your water kh is similar to your tanks it means you will need to do larger and more frequent water changes to remove any waste since with such a low kh your water will be susceptible to combining with the nitrogenous waste to form nitric acid, lowering your ph. you could filter over limestone to increase gh, kh, and ph. but remember the ph scale is like the richter scale. a ph of 7 is 10 times as acidic as 8, and 6 is 100 times as acidic as 8. so even a small change in ph can stress fish. try to not change more than .3 ph daily.

09-23-2005, 08:02 PM	#8
Thunderkiss Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 376	How long has the tank been up and running with frogs in it, and how many did you add at once? There is no reason they shouldn't be perfectly happy in that pH.

09-23-2005, 08:08 PM	#9
bananas Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Earth Posts: 88	most snails cannot handle much lower than 7.0 pH 7.2 or above is ideal 6.3 is a good way to kill off your snails __________________ 10 Gallon Tank 31 Platys (MF too hard to count) 1 Golden Chinese Algae Eating Catfish (1F) 5 Gallon Tank 1 Apple Snail [1F]

09-27-2005, 09:10 AM	#11
Thunderkiss Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 376	"most snails cannot handle much lower than 7.0 pH 7.2 or above is ideal 6.3 is a good way to kill off your snails" Never seen this to be true. Ponds can regularly get to 6, and every snail i've ever dropped into the pond have done nothing but grow like weeds.

09-27-2005, 10:00 AM	#12
Georgia Peach Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Gray, Georgia Age: 42 Posts: 1,610	I would not add more than one teaspoon daily of soda - run a full scale of tests the next day - thats what I done. I made the mistake one time of adding a few doses throught the day and it really threw my tank in the other direction. It took quite a while to undo the damages __________________ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *Cichlids have more personality than most people I know !*

09-27-2005, 02:16 PM	#13
cheseboy Freshwater Shrimp Dude Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Behind you Age: 16 Posts: 340	Well I've stabilized my tank for now, and are slowly raising the KH and PH. I added limestone to my filter. I might add baking soda once a week in addition too.

09-29-2005, 08:07 PM	#15
cheseboy Freshwater Shrimp Dude Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Behind you Age: 16 Posts: 340	Probably, Now I thinking it was just the sudden PH change that killed the two smallest ones. Since I last checked my PH was 6.5, my KH was 0 and my gh was very low. I'g gonna need to reise the KH slowly for water change time so I don't change it like .5 by adding the 7.2 water. Instead of baking soda, in addition to the limestone I am adding Kent Marine liquid calcium (Need to use it up) so it will help raise the GH witch will raise PH and KH. Also snails arn't really that pretty outside of their shells, when you pull them out, when they are dead. Wow, this incident is really making me understand the importance of PH alot more.

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