surprise test finding during water changes

[glenn anthony]

OK i dont know what seems to be going wrong but in the past 2 weeks my water has been fine a bit high on the nitrates, very high GH but thats how my water is liquid rock, today when water water changing in found my PH to be very acidic like i dont even think there was a color below mine,

i have not experienced this at least not personally, its 3am and i gotta work  early (and first think ill be doing is testing my tap water (I still have some tetra strips so I have not gotten the coops yet (did notice expiration on tests was Dec 2022??)

5 gall, 2 10gall, a 20 long and a empty 40 B  mocking and laughing at me cause i gotta buy/build a stand

any help/info would be much appreciated (also last PH reading was about 6.8)   THANKS TO ALL have a great week

[Cinnebuns]

Are you cycling?  Cycling a tank can cause a PH drop. 

[itsfoxtail]

On 11/28/2022 at 2:03 AM, glenn anthony said:

5 gall, 2 10gall, a 20 long and a empty 40 B  mocking and laughing at me cause i gotta buy/build a stand

I felt this in my soul.

On 11/28/2022 at 2:03 AM, glenn anthony said:

OK i dont know what seems to be going wrong but in the past 2 weeks my water has been fine a bit high on the nitrates, very high GH but thats how my water is liquid rock, today when water water changing in found my PH to be very acidic like i dont even think there was a color below mine,

any help/info would be much appreciated (also last PH reading was about 6.8)   THANKS TO ALL have a great week

I would like to say first off it could definitely be test strip expiration/problems.

Are all your tanks reading the same drop-off in ph or just one? If it's all of of them I'd take a hard look at your fish/plants and see if you see any differences. If everyone is acting like nothing has changed at all I might lean towards a strip error.

But assuming it's not: what is your normal ph level? Is 6.8 around what it's always been or has it been dropping? You haven't added co2 recently have you?

And I suppose my most important question of all: do you know what your kh level is? Or perhaps what it was in the past? 

My guess off the top of my head would be that your tap has a low kh and your tank/plants have finally eaten through the buffer causing your ph to drop. My own tap water has a kh of 1 degree, or 2 if we're having a good day, and my heavily planted tanks eat through that buffer on the regular. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/28/2022 at 12:03 AM, glenn anthony said:

any help/info would be much appreciated (also last PH reading was about 6.8)   THANKS TO ALL have a great week

I don't really understand what you're asking. PH is normally acidic, sub 6.3, now the tap is 6.8?

 

What you're talking about sounds like, low KH and then you had a PH crash that's resulted in....

 

[glenn anthony]

tank is 2 yrs more like 3yrs  (o ammonia 0 nitrite, very hard GH low KH 10-20 (tetra strips) and PH has been around 6.8 Someone mentioned co2 and no not using it seems to have mainly dropped in my faily heavy planted 10gall (yeah in may be an old tank issue as one person had stated

as for a rading of 6,3 being normal as nabokovfan87 stated than I guess i have no problems but I've always felt safe at a 6.8 PH

will be ordering new test strips from coop

was out of the hobby for almost 10 yrs (except for one betta, he of course did not live 10 yrs, 🥲 but always kept a 5 or 10 gall running, just jumped back in headfirst about 5 years ago

WELL TANKS TO EVERYONE WHO REPLIED YOUR HELP IS APPRECIATED

[glenn anthony]

Well it seems now everything is back to normal (the 1 10gall is still a bit low on the KH side, and PH now closer to 6.8)

other tanks were not that bad to begin with but reading tonight are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, aprox 15-20 nitrate, KH back to 80, PH back to 6.8/7 Did notice mt tap water is a good bit lower on the GH compare to summer (as its been awhile since i tested my h2o from the tap

WELL GUESS LOOKING BACK I was in such a panic i forgot everything i learned from Cory and all us nerms THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP PEOPLE