louthy
Mon Jan 20, 2014, 09:33 AM
Hello out there Im mark and new to this website il make more of a post on the introduction thread section , but just wanted to say hi to all on board.
I hate to be one of these people that joins in a moment of adversity but im having major issues and for the sake of my discus and my health cant work it out.
so it goes like this and sorry in advance if this is a bit long winded.
iv been keeping discus for 2 years in the community tank its a 5ft 400lt planted tank with 8 discus in it plus some cardinals and corys etc.
3 months a ago i made the big investment into a automated ph controlled co2 setup im also using a 36w uv filter. The last few months it has been working perfect and the ph has been maintained at a near perfect 6.5 controlled by the co2 obviously, but 2 weeks ago i notice that the ph had started to drop and i mean it ended up at around 6.1. I did a water change straight away (which i do on a strict weekly basis) which lifted the ph up and above 6.5 wich then kicked the co2 in and buffered the tap water and kept it at 6.5 as the tank was filling. now usually as time goes by hours days etc the ph should rise or it always has for me, but this time the opposite, after a couple of hours the ph started to drop again. nOw iv been having this same problem for the last couple of weeks sometimes it gets down to 5.8 which really worries me its currently sitting on 6.2 but thats cause i did a water change yesterday arvo. My major concern is the unstability of the ph especially seen as its not staying constant, as of so far the discus have appeared to been coping but today i get home from work and there all looking quite dark only 3 ate when i fed them as well which is a bigger concern. I have double checked the ph controller readings many times with a bromothylene drop tester( or aquaone ph tester) and its readings are correct, i also gave the eheim canister filter an overhaul as well cleaning all the substrate and changing the pads( i though ionittally it could of been exessive waste breakdown causing it). The other thing i wonder is how the benificial bacteria is in the filter,cause i know much below 6.5 and the reproduction cycle slows way down, i wonder if im going to see further repocussions of that later as well.So im in strife i cant work out why this is happening now iv introduced nothing new into the tank, the rocks , wood and plants have been there for well over a year. grrrrrrrrrrr what is causing this constant drop in ph?????
Any help would be much appreciated.
cheers
Louthy
I hate to be one of these people that joins in a moment of adversity but im having major issues and for the sake of my discus and my health cant work it out.
so it goes like this and sorry in advance if this is a bit long winded.
iv been keeping discus for 2 years in the community tank its a 5ft 400lt planted tank with 8 discus in it plus some cardinals and corys etc.
3 months a ago i made the big investment into a automated ph controlled co2 setup im also using a 36w uv filter. The last few months it has been working perfect and the ph has been maintained at a near perfect 6.5 controlled by the co2 obviously, but 2 weeks ago i notice that the ph had started to drop and i mean it ended up at around 6.1. I did a water change straight away (which i do on a strict weekly basis) which lifted the ph up and above 6.5 wich then kicked the co2 in and buffered the tap water and kept it at 6.5 as the tank was filling. now usually as time goes by hours days etc the ph should rise or it always has for me, but this time the opposite, after a couple of hours the ph started to drop again. nOw iv been having this same problem for the last couple of weeks sometimes it gets down to 5.8 which really worries me its currently sitting on 6.2 but thats cause i did a water change yesterday arvo. My major concern is the unstability of the ph especially seen as its not staying constant, as of so far the discus have appeared to been coping but today i get home from work and there all looking quite dark only 3 ate when i fed them as well which is a bigger concern. I have double checked the ph controller readings many times with a bromothylene drop tester( or aquaone ph tester) and its readings are correct, i also gave the eheim canister filter an overhaul as well cleaning all the substrate and changing the pads( i though ionittally it could of been exessive waste breakdown causing it). The other thing i wonder is how the benificial bacteria is in the filter,cause i know much below 6.5 and the reproduction cycle slows way down, i wonder if im going to see further repocussions of that later as well.So im in strife i cant work out why this is happening now iv introduced nothing new into the tank, the rocks , wood and plants have been there for well over a year. grrrrrrrrrrr what is causing this constant drop in ph?????
Any help would be much appreciated.
cheers
Louthy