Sudden change in PH and KH values in my tanks????? Advise Please!

[Sandra the fish rookie]

@SWilson ok cool, I will get some from ACO. As for the snails.. I am hoping with all these new plants, some will show up but a friend of mine has a TON in her tanks and will give me some. I am thinking of getting a little 2.5 G adding a small nano sponge filter, and keeping a bunch in there.. I have a perfect little spot I could keep them in.. then they can have all the algae and babies they want.. I have to find that video that Cory made about PH crashes.. I just don't want it to get any lower.. 

I have 1 Ramshorn snail in my 20 G but its alone.. so no babies.. ugh.. 

Get an aquarium they said..its so much fun they said.. 🙂 

[quikv6]

Hey Sandra....I am someone who artificially buffers soft water for the livebearers I have. I have very low KH and GH out of the tap, with a 6.8 PH, roughly. I do use wondershells as well. In my limited experience, they really don't seem to boost KH at all, though they do boost my GH. I don't think they would help too much for you specifically, as you said you already have harder water.

It sounds like the small waterchanges would be a solution to bring back some KH. (PH should follow.) The baking soda method is what I use, and that would work too. If you are going to go that route, please be cautious, as mentioned above....especially since you are working with a very small amount of water to begin with. Don't add it directly to the tank, until you see what a given amount (say, 1/8th of a teaspoon) does to a gallon of tap water. (Or better yet...a gallon removed from your tank).

[anewbie]

I would not raise the ph with baking soda - it is kind of pointless as long as the ph is above 6. Adding buffering maybe but not in the tank - the fishes don't like sudden changes in most cases (esp sa fishes which love soft acidic water) and adding baking soda to the tank has the potential to shock the fishes.

[quikv6]

I believe the issue wasn't the PH per se, but the fact that there was 0 KH, and the appearance that the PH has dropped measurably, and possibly continuing to drop, as a result.

[Biotope Biologist]

Like I said you can add carbonate salts to add kH to the tank, but I don't think you need to remove the driftwood or do anything other than what you are doing with weekly water changes. The kH will buff your pH loss through the tannic acid absorption and you will add more kH through water changes. I really think we are getting lost in the weeds here. The wonder shell will not help you as much due to your high gH. Same goes for coral as your hardness will not allow for proper dissolving of the kH into the water.

 

The pH value will not drop significantly unless a strong acid is present. Given the circumstances I do not believe this to be true. I would not worry unless your pH values dip below 6.0.