Bruno Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 I just did a water test and my ph which is normally around 8.0 is reading 6.0 today. The tank is a 90G that is home to my cichlids and has regular sand and lace rock in it. I did add a new AC110 filter to it a few days ago but the old filter is also still running. Other then that no changes for a couple of months. I haven't checked the water though for about a month as everyone has been happy and it gets regular large water changes. I was checking the 75 though and thought while the kit was out I would have a look at everyone... The other 2 tanks are all still showing ph at 7.8 so I am not sure what has happened to this one. Any suggestions? And since this is a cichlid tank, how do I get the ph back up for them? And do I need to do it quickly, or slowly change it as I dont know how long it has been at 6? Help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted January 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 initial panic is wearing off - I did a 75% water change last Saturday, so ph must have been up at that point. I usually do a large WC Friday or Saturday, so if there is something causing the drop I should be able to monitor it. I'll do another water change, same 75% I normally do and check PH after that, and daily thereafter to see what is happening. Any ideas though of what I should be looking at that would cause this in the first place? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted January 3, 2014 Report Share Posted January 3, 2014 Any dead fish in the tank can cause pH to drop, as will any excessive decaying matter. In an African cichlid tank with just the decor you mentioned, I can't really think of anything else it could be. How deep is the sand? If it's deep and the fish dug up some of the crud in there, it could cause a pH crash - it's a good idea to give it a good stir with your weekly WC if you don't have MTS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted January 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2014 Thanks for the reply. No decaying fish that I can see, but I will do a count and see if anyone is stuck back in the rocks. The sand is not very deep and the cichlids do a good job of digging down to the base. I also have some MTS in there. And no other decaying mess. I have been working all afternoon and will be into the evening, so I will do a WC tomorrow AM and see what PH looks like then. Very confusing though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted January 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2014 I swear I wasn't drinking yesterday (or today for that matter) but before changing the water today I did another water test and ph is 7.8 I cant see how I could mess up 3 drops from one bottle (and I did check the bottle when I got the 6.0 reading yesterday) so I have no idea what happened. I'll keep checking it to be sure but I can't imagine there is anyway for the water to drop like that one day and go back up the next. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckmullin Posted January 4, 2014 Report Share Posted January 4, 2014 perhaps chemical residue. Do you do the 3x swish method? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyfisher Posted January 4, 2014 Report Share Posted January 4, 2014 I swear I wasn't drinking yesterday (or today for that matter) but before changing the water today I did another water test and ph is 7.8 I cant see how I could mess up 3 drops from one bottle (and I did check the bottle when I got the 6.0 reading yesterday) so I have no idea what happened. I'll keep checking it to be sure but I can't imagine there is anyway for the water to drop like that one day and go back up the next. Happy everything worked out for the better,curious which test kit are you using?On the API for high range PH test it should be five drops. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted January 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2014 perhaps chemical residue. Do you do the 3x swish method? Not sure what that is. When I put the new filter in I ran all the new media under tap water a few times since I didn't have any BB to worry about. What is the 3x swish method? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted January 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2014 I swear I wasn't drinking yesterday (or today for that matter) but before changing the water today I did another water test and ph is 7.8 I cant see how I could mess up 3 drops from one bottle (and I did check the bottle when I got the 6.0 reading yesterday) so I have no idea what happened. I'll keep checking it to be sure but I can't imagine there is anyway for the water to drop like that one day and go back up the next. Happy everything worked out for the better,curious which test kit are you using?On the API for high range PH test it should be five drops. I usually do both ph and high ph, so the first test is 3 drops. When it showed yellow and read 6.0 I didn't go back and do the high ph. That may have saved me as obviously I must have messed up so the high ph may have read the 7.8 or 8 I am used to. The 6.0 reading freaked me out and I didn't do the second test and instead came on here looking for reasons for why that had happened. I didn't even test it a second time, oops. In my own defense I was fighting the flu and didn't have a clear head lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckmullin Posted January 4, 2014 Report Share Posted January 4, 2014 When working with chemicals in a lab the 3x method is just that...rinsing out the vial, test tube, flask 3 times including any lids to remove any possible chemical residue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted January 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2014 without knowing what it was called, yes I do that with my vials used for the water tests Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candi Posted January 17, 2014 Report Share Posted January 17, 2014 It may be helpful to get another method of checking the pH, or just another bottle of strips. They may be contaminated or on the verge of expiry which is causing false readings.... Just a thought Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted January 22, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2014 I use the ADI bottles, not strips. And I had just done my other tank which read as expected. Likely I did something wrong, and I never followed up with the high PH nor did I retest to see if I got the same result. The ph has been stable since so I am sure it was a error on my part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckmullin Posted January 22, 2014 Report Share Posted January 22, 2014 Glad things seem to be resolved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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