P H question

[polgara]

ok I may sound like a idiot, but I want to know what it is that lowers my ph levels in my tank so much. I seem be forever fighting to keep my ph levels level. So lets talk about PH.......... :lol:

[Matthew]

possibly decaying organic matter. If this is your oscar tank how well do you clean your gravel? As you would be aware oscars love to eat and hence defaecate. Also they love to rearrange there tank. hence burying organic material into all sorts of positions in the tank.

My advice would be to add some oyster grit to your filter, this will increase the hardness, and alkalinity plus work as a buffer to prevent pH drops in the future. The only issue is that the oscars may not like the pH that high (when i use it my tank goes to mid 7's) although I would add oyster grit if my pH was dropping rapidly enough for me to be concerned.

[Midas]

The natural course of the part of the nitrogen cycle which converts ammonia to nitrite then nitrate (nitrification) releases hydrogen ions which will lower the pH in a fish tank. If you have a tank with a lot of bio-load (e.g. something like oscars) the nitrification process alone is capable of droping the pH quite quickly. Especially if you have soft water that does not have much pH buffering capacity.

As Matt said, adding something like crushed shells in a filter (I use bird grit contained in a nylon stocking) is a good solution to the problem as this keeps the pH up. I wouldn't worry too much about the pH going too high, in my CA cichlid tank (which has quite a high bioload) it keeps the pH at around 7.

[Caryl]

What is the pH and what fish do you have?