Help:ph drop recently.. after n after water change..

[deux]

hi all,

i experience ph drop last week for my 4ft and 2ft tank after i changed water 40%. After that i changed again 50% then went up to ph 6.5 and drop again to around ph5. All my shrimp and eXp pleco died. I stay at woodlands..

Can anyone advise me. Thank you

[budak]

Could you get a kit to do a test of your tap water's pH and KH?

Do you use highly acidifying substrate like ADA Aquasoil?

If you are injecting CO2, I would suggest you add some baking soda (sodium bicarbonate, available at NTUC) to raise the KH and buffering capacity of your water, so that the pH does not dip so much. A KH of 5-6 is good. Search the Aquatic FAQ for the dosage. Local tap water has very low KH (0-1) usually.

[deux]

[quote:4fba712942="budak"]Could you get a kit to do a test of your tap water's pH and KH?

Do you use highly acidifying substrate like ADA Aquasoil?

If you are injecting CO2, I would suggest you add some baking soda (sodium bicarbonate, available at NTUC) to raise the KH and buffering capacity of your water, so that the pH does not dip so much. A KH of 5-6 is good. Search the Aquatic FAQ for the dosage. Local tap water has very low KH (0-1) usually.[/quote:4fba712942]

hi budak,

my 4ft is planted and 2ft is bare plant with pleco and some fishes.. i'm not using ADA aquasoil and both tank got the same ph drop to ph 5 when changin of water recently.

I have check the KH and both tank is KH1!.. and tap water also.. thanks for ur advise will add baking soda ltr!!