PH problems!

[feyyke]

Hi! I'm new in the hobby, and I'm trying to figure out how to work with the PH!
So, my tank is 30l/8gal. I had two pieces of honeycomb wood put in it after boiling it for an hour, and i did a fish in cycle (had to relocate some fish from my grandpa's old tank There's 6 guppies and one kuhli loach in it rn). The driftwood has dyed the water and lowered it to 5.5PH (my tap water was 7PH). I removed one of the wood pieces and did a 20% water change. I know the PH was lowered by the tannins from the wood, but I assumed having boiled my wood would've helped? I want to keep my water closer to neutral PH, since I'm planning adding other fish and some more plants. What's the best ways to raise the PH? I know there's chemical solutions, but wouldn't they be temporary? Will the driftwood stop dying the water eventually?

[Tony s]

For now. Do a couple of water changes from your tap. That’ll bring it up closer to normal. You don’t really want to swing it up quickly.  It’s probably going to take a couple of days. 
the boiling helped. Maybe not enough. You could pull the wood temporarily and boil it some more. Boil a few times. Changed water in pot between boiling. Then when it gets lower tannins you add it back 

If your fish are struggling with the lower ph. You could do a drastic water change. If not slowly is better 

[face]

Out of curiosity what are you using to test you ph most ph test only go down to 6 so I’m curious 

but the first thing I’d do is is take some water and put it in a bucket and wait over night or a day stir it every once in a while if you can some tap water changes in ph naturally after it sits (mine goes from 8to 6.6 for example) the next thing is I’d get a kh test kit changing ph without knowing kh isn’t a great idea imo 

As for driftwood and tenants it all depends on the wood some never stop some burn out quickly but honestly if you have a decently high kh tenants don’t usually do much 

Edited February 25 by face

[feyyke]

On 2/25/2024 at 5:55 PM, face said:

Out of curiosity what are you using to test you ph most ph test only go down to 6 so I’m curious 

but the first thing I’d do is is take some water and put it in a bucket and wait over night or a day stir it every once in a while if you can some tap water changes in ph naturally after it sits (mine goes from 8to 6.6 for example) the next thing is I’d get a kh test kit changing ph without knowing kh isn’t a great idea imo 

As for driftwood and tenants it all depends on the wood some never stop some burn out quickly but honestly if you have a decently high kh tenants don’t usually do much 

i'm using a ph test from sera!
and i just tested kh with a tropical test, it's a 3 dkh, i'm pretty sure (i did the test a few times)

[face]

Hmm those are some strange readings at 5.5ph I’d expect 0kh are you injecting co2or anything like that? 

[Galabar]

Do you have GH and KH tests?  Even simple strip tests would be helpful.

Measure your tap water and tank water and let us know what you see.

 

[feyyke]

On 2/26/2024 at 12:14 AM, face said:

Hmm those are some strange readings at 5.5ph I’d expect 0kh are you injecting co2or anything like that? 

nope, nothing of the sort! there wood was like 1/4th of the tank though

[EricksonAquatics]

Cory seems to usually recommend crushed coral to raise pH. I think it will also raise KH and GH so just be aware of that.

[face]

Mhm strange in theory the only thing we can cause you to have kh and a very low ph is co2  wood would lower kh and that would bring ph down so I’m honestly not sure what’s going on with your water definitely would be interested to see the test I mentioned earlier also what do you have for filtration?

as for increasing your ph crushed coral would be the easiest but will likely dramatically increase gh as well as ph and kh the other options are products like seachem neutral buffer 

[reefhugger]

I wasn't familiar with honeycomb wood so I did a bit of googling.  Several sites recommended much more boiling and soaking.  For example one recommended boiling for 3 hours and soaking in fresh water for a week; another recommended soaking for 2 weeks and doing frequent water changes.  From your comment that the wood is 1/4 of the tank (did I read that correctly?)  I'm thinking that more processing of the wood will help in stabilizing the effect of the wood on your water parameters.  

As @Galabar  mentioned testing for GH and kH is important, especially KH since that helps buffer ph.   Aquarium Co op has some very good information ( https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/ph-gh-kh)  on understanding the relationship of those parameters.  To understand one you have to understand the others.  

 

 

[feyyke]

Thank you all for your insight! I'm going to do some wood boiling and redo the ph tests once I'm back from college today!

[feyyke]

So I've removed the wood and boiled it like twice with one water change, and scrubbed it a bunch with a toothbrush. Not putting it in just yet, I'm getting new substrate tomorrow because it's been just sand so far. So wood's been out for a few hours now

I did PH again today and I'd say it's between 6 and 6.5 now. Maybe it's removing the wood and the 20% water change that made the difference?

As for KH, I happen to be getting home in the evenings, so it's very difficult for me to see the change from violet to yellow, so my readings might not be accurate at all. I'd say it's 2dKH?

Also did a GH test for the first time ever,  it's a 4dGH? 5dGH? either one

Sorry for not exactly accurate results, as mentioned before, I'm working with artificial light here.

and to answer @reefhugger, yes the wood used to be 1/4th of the tank! It's all removed for now though, and since I'm planning on scape rework I'll most likely get some wood cut so it doesn't take this much space