Hi

My aquarium water PH was sitting at 6.8 which was okey but now it has suddenly dropped to 6.0. I have mainly just small community fish which are: black widow tetra's, angelfish, tiger barbs, gouramis and a sucker fish. I also have one big catfish which is a synodontis nigrita. Do you think these fish will be ok in these conditions or will I need to do something? Thanks,

Kieran

You need to keep the ph stable, most fish can with stand ph between 5 - 9 but not 5 one week and 9 the next, that will adapt to slight changes but any change should be done gradually, if you tapwater it 6 and you have nothing in your tank that changes it, then leave well alone, it will always be 6 and your fish will be happy with that. What substrate do you have, you put in some coral gravel like i have to increase the ph slightly, leave it in the tank all the time and the ph will stay at that level. di

Hello Kieranuk Have you tested your tap water to see what the ph is in that, it is normal for ph to drop gradually but not suddely so have you added any bog wood or anything that may have brought it down, if not then depending on your tapwater it should right itself with regular part water changes, other wise you can do as fishyfeet suggsted and put some coral gravel in your filter (depending on what filter you have) and that will bring it up if needed, a lot of fish dont mind softer water so you may not have to worry why don't you do a search on which fish you have and compare the ph they prefer then you will know if you need to adjust it or not.

Hi

I haven't put bogwood in or anything to lower the ph but i have an ammonia problem so it might be that. All of my fish are okey with the PH when i researched them on the internet it isnt there ideal level but they still can live in it. I put some rock in a while ago which was supposed to supposed to bring my ph up and it worked for awhile but then stopped and let the PH fall.

Ammonia shouldn't effect the ph but you will need to sort that out first and then worry about the ph, what filter do you have as mentioned already the coral gravel placed in the filter will bring the ph up if needed, I have low ph and have been useing the coral gravel with good results so am speaking from personal experience

I am using a standard Juwel pump which comes with the tank and a interpet pf2 power filter. I have these bags of stones which remove ammonia on the juwel pump and i put live bacteria in it. I still have very high ammonia not that good nitrite and green/cloudy water. Do you think there is anything i can do to sort this problem? I heard that the good bacteria couldnt grow in low PH level's. I would really appriciate any advice. Thanks,

Kieran

wht are the stones called that u added to the filter, zeolite, or something else, di

I know this is a silly question but have you cycled the tank?

Steve

Ime not sure what the stones are called but there the first item on this page http://www.q-pet.com/store/Fish/HagenFlvlFilterMedia.asp. Ages ago I was to do my tank has started to cycle but do i have to do anything to cycle it?

thats not silly, i was thinking the same thing, but didnt want to sound silly, im glad you asked steve, least we can be silly together. di