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Thread: Very Low pH

  1. #1
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    Unhappy Very Low pH

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    Hi All,

    Its been nearly a month since I re-did my tank with ADA products. This is a planted tank and I do a regular water (1/3rd) every week. The plants are striving well in the tank and infact a very good growth I would say.

    The problem is the pH is very low still, in the acidic range (4.5 to 5). Not sure what to do? Because of this I've not added any fish into this tank.

    Any idea how long its going to take get my tank's pH to be in that ideal range of 6.6 to 7.0.

    Is there anything I should do to bring this up? Or is it necessary at all to raise the pH?

    Regards
    Bhargav

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    You can Try Putting Coral Chips In Filter Bag And Put It In The Filter Conpartment

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    How about using some "PH Up" solution that are commonly availabe from the LFSes?
    David Lim

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    Depending on the type of fishes, you do not need to bring the pH up to 6.6 or 7.0... Your ADA soil (btw, which one? Africana has the ability to bring it down very low) will continue to work its magic even if you add all the different additives, making it very troublesome and also your conditions unstable...

    unless you intend to keep cichlids or fishes from the African Great Lakes or fishes which need high pH, it shouldn't be a problem. Just need to acclimitise new fishes abit longer before adding them into the water...

    Your pH should raise and stay constant at around 6.4 after some time. So don't worry... Enjoy the plants and fishes!
    ~ Vincent ~ Fishes calm your mind...
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/valice/





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    My first tank is also using ADA Africana, the pH drop to 4.5. After 4 weeks I saw some mosquito larvae, scared that HDB going to fine me , I put 10 boraras brigatte, they don't seems to be bother with low pH.

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    Come on... as long as the pH is 5-7 fish can live. The so-called optimum parameters for fish shown on the web are most likely for breeding purposes.

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    Thanks for all the inputs

    Quote Originally Posted by valice View Post
    Depending on the type of fishes, you do not need to bring the pH up to 6.6 or 7.0... Your ADA soil (btw, which one? Africana has the ability to bring it down very low) will continue to work its magic even if
    Yes, I'm using ADA Africana. Thanks for all your inputs. I'll wait for 1 more week and start introducing fishes in my tank.

    Regards
    Bhargav

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    Apart from coral chips you can also add bicarbonate of soda (NOT Baking Soda). Get from NTUC baking section only cost like $0.80 - $1. Very effective in increasing PH.

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    I advise against adding chemicals to bring up PH. the fact that you use ADA Africana soil, the PH is meant to be low. If you want high ph, may as well use neutral substrates. Agree with Squee, that most fish can survive with Ph 4-7. As what Vincent said, just leave it, your fish would be ok...
    I am into Plecos now...
    L46, L173, L134 & L236
    ~~Jeffrey~~

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    check your kh ... if its zero, your ph can swing wildly from 5 to 8 ... this can cause fish to be stressed n die
    ... always look at the bright side of life

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    Yet to face that problem with ADA soil which gives a kH reading of 0-1...
    pH stays constant at 6.4... Even after water changes...
    ~ Vincent ~ Fishes calm your mind...
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/valice/





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    Just my humble opinion,since your pH is low then why not take advantage of it to keep fishes that thrive in low pH.
    Fishes like rummynose tetras, cardinal tetras, south american dwarf cichlids etc would show their colours best in a low pH environment

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    And also, especially for dwarf cichlids, their finnages will grow to spectacular lengths in soft and acidic water like yours...
    ~ Vincent ~ Fishes calm your mind...
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/valice/





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    Yeah, I'm having some Cardinal Tetras in my tank. Valice I've not tried any of the dwarf cichlids. I'll take in your suggestion and hunt around for good variety and non aggressive one's. Can you suggest any particular variety (not those Ram's) and place where I can get them?

    Regards
    Bhargav

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    Only places I know that still carry acceptable quality Apistogramma is Biotope and EcoCulture... C328 carries A.cacatuoides too, but conditions don't look very promising...

    The not-so-aggressive species and easy maintainance species (based on what is currently available in the market) will include A.bitaeniata (Biotope has this A.sp 'Haway' which is a A.bitaeniata of red colour morph IIRC), A.agassizii, A.trifasciasta and A.cacatuoides. The two shops also carry A.atapulpha aka A.sp 'Sunset', but the males are known to be pretty aggressive, so might not satify your requirement...

    Well, you can head down to the shops and take a look...
    ~ Vincent ~ Fishes calm your mind...
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/valice/





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