PH Dropping

[Kinner]

Ok quick question

Ive got a 55gal tank with a Aquatech30-60 and Penquin 330 and a 14" bubblewand.. got 2 corys, 1 catfish, a pleco, crab, and 6 misc cichlids. Anyways on the the question...

My water PH reduces slowly during the week. i do a weekly water change each sunday...my 10 gal doesnt have this problem....I do not know if it is the new rocks i put in or if it is just the 55 gallon...I have not tried taking the rocks out yet to see if that has something to do with it or if it is something else. I am rather new to the hobby and not real experienced yet. I really dont want to subject my fish to the PH changes ( my waters PH is alot higher so when i do a water change the PH changes quite a bit up).

Does anyone have any clues to why my tank would be spiking...is it possible it's the rocks? I bought them at lowes(soaked the crap outta them as well and gave them a thorough cleaning). Or could it be something else...

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.


EDIT.... I forgot to mention i have 2 amazon sword? plants in my aquarium as well..if that has anything to do with it

 

[Cichlid-Man]

Did you cycle the tank?
Do you put Co2 in for the plants?

I personally don't worry about the pH in my 25 gal.........intresting.

 

[wayne at home]

What are your hardness figures, what about nitrates? It is almost certainly not the rocks, though they could be hiding debris.. How big are the water changes, do you gravel clean. How deep is your gravel, any algae problems?
What are cichlids, how big. And tell us about the 10 as well for comparism

 

[Kinner]

The tank was cycled..Nitrates about 10-20 ppm...will drop today when i do my water change. I do not put in CO2 in for the plants. I have 2 convicts, one is about 3 inches and the other is about 1.5 inches, Electric yellow is about 2", Kenyi is about 1.75 inches, Bumblebee is about 2", and then I have one assorted african cichlid of which i have no clue what the species is and he/she is about 2.5 inches or so, two 1" corys, one 2.5" catfish, one 2.75" rainbow shark(forgot to mention it in my other post), and a 3" pleco.

I do a 10-15 gallon water change weekly, with a 50% change monthly. Each water change I vacuum the gravel, and the gravel is about 1.5-2 inches thick. I used 55lbs of gravel. I have some green algae growing on my decorations, nothing too outta control, just a little algae is all.

Ill try to post a pic of it today and I will retest my water hardness, havent tested it within the past week, went outta town on vacation last week and thats when i noticed the PH had dropped substantially


As for the 10 gal. it used to house about 5 of the fish until i got the 55 gal. Now it has just a little juvi bright orange cichlid(gotta look up species, forgot to write it down when i bought) just letting him get big enough b4 i put him in the 55 gal.. 10lbs gravel in there, ph stays around 7 doesnt drop slowly below that like the 55 gal.. It has stayed pretty stable for the past 3 months...Ill check the hardness in this one as well today before i do a water change. 2 of the same type of hydra plants in here as well as a fake Bonzai tree.

Thanks again

EDIT:

Water test conditions

55 Gal:
6.6 PH, 0 Nitrites, 0 Ammonia, 20PPM Nitrates, 53.7 PPM KH, 161.1 PPM GH

10 Gal:
7.2 PH, 0 Nitrites, 0 Ammonia, 10 PPM Nitrates, 71.6 PPM KH, 161.1 PPM GH

I really dont want to have to get a Proper PH product if possible, then Ill have to switch to fake plants.

 

[wayne]

OK, according to a quick calcualtion 53.7 ppm = approx 18 ppm so 53.7 = 3 kH and 71.6 = 4. Where did you get those numbers - do you have an electronic meter?
I'm surprised they're as high as this, but I'm guesstimating your meter might be al ittle off. Anyway as you'll note, there's a reduction in kH going on here as your ph drops. I tihnk your tank is suffering from low alkalinity (measured by you as kH) - this is being pushed down, and taking pH with it. What's pushing it down - I'm going to guess acumulated crud in your substrate - 2 inches of normal pea gravel is possible(likely) to do this. This forms organic acids as it decays. Try a phosphate test - if it's greater than zero or trace, this is another sign.
I'm going to suggest a few things - drop the thickness of substrate - my african tank has now got only a very thin layer left - I had numerous algae prpoblems in a similar situation.
You should also raise kH and pH - all your fish will do better with higher numbers than those. You can use limstones for decoration or a limestone based substrate (what I do), or you can get direct and add a Rift Valley Salts mix of some type. Please check to make sure it contains NO NaCl. DO NOT try to use NaCl to raise pH - it won't work.
Unfortuneately many of your plants won't like the higher values, but sooner or later they will be trashed by the cichlids anyway. Vallis does like these values, other than that I stick to plantslike anubias and java fern that I can tie down.
On another subject know that you will eventually get problems between the convicts and africans because of behavioural differences.
My guesstimate.

 

[Kinner]

I used the kit you buy from Petsmart and took the numbers and multiplied them by 17.9( number in book to get ppm)

Even if i vacuum gravel every week it will still drop like this? How do i do a phosphate test

I posted my tank pics in the aquarium rating section...let me know if this is the gravel you are talking about..Does the ProperPH product work? do you recommend using it?
and i will look into getting some limestone
or will some dead coral work also? have some from cozymel when my friend went there


thanks again for the detailed posts bud