Hello, I'm having real trouble with my PH
I currently have a tank finishing its cycle, and fish in a quarantine tank. I just got an electronic PH meter and was shocked to see that the PH in my QT tank is around 7.1-7.2!
The cycling tank is about the same, but i've read that tanks that are cycling can have low PH and Alk so i will try to wait that one out. But i'm worried about the QT tank.
It's been up for around 3 months now, and I have been having some problems with fish mortality (and snail mortality) in the QT tank, i wasn't sure of the cause but now I suspect that low PH might be the culprit? I have an acrylic lid with holes drilled in it, and I thought maybe it was inhibiting gas exchange, but even with it off it hasn't gone up significantly.
I tested the saltwater I just made (in a 10L bucket with a lid on it), and even that PH is lower than i'd like at 7.6, but at least that's not fatal.
I know dosing a buffer is just a bandaid solution but I'm not sure what else to do when the PH level is this dire. Anyone have any ideas of what might be going wrong and how to fix it?
Edit: Someone suggested testing Alk and that's ALSO very low at 5.2dKH. What is going on????
I currently have a tank finishing its cycle, and fish in a quarantine tank. I just got an electronic PH meter and was shocked to see that the PH in my QT tank is around 7.1-7.2!
The cycling tank is about the same, but i've read that tanks that are cycling can have low PH and Alk so i will try to wait that one out. But i'm worried about the QT tank.
It's been up for around 3 months now, and I have been having some problems with fish mortality (and snail mortality) in the QT tank, i wasn't sure of the cause but now I suspect that low PH might be the culprit? I have an acrylic lid with holes drilled in it, and I thought maybe it was inhibiting gas exchange, but even with it off it hasn't gone up significantly.
I tested the saltwater I just made (in a 10L bucket with a lid on it), and even that PH is lower than i'd like at 7.6, but at least that's not fatal.
I know dosing a buffer is just a bandaid solution but I'm not sure what else to do when the PH level is this dire. Anyone have any ideas of what might be going wrong and how to fix it?
Edit: Someone suggested testing Alk and that's ALSO very low at 5.2dKH. What is going on????
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