Having massive problems with ph

[Nathan]

well im having a really hard time keeping my ph stable in my BB tank, i have another planted 3 ft tank with discus an the water params are really stable, is this because theres more fish plants, bacteria etc?

the problem is that the ph coming from my tank ahs been changing through the last week an i hadnt realised until i tested my tank an it was at 6.2 after a w/c, the tap water was 6.2 then a few days later it was 6.4 now its back to normal 7.

ive been adding kh powder to help slowly raise the ph, however i heard its pretty bad to add kh directly to the tank water? how else do u do it then?

also should i be adding kh powder to my water ageing container?

anyway im just havn a bad time with ph an my discus are suffering because of it, so any suggestions would be great.

im pretty sure that filtration (sponge filter vs cannister filter) wouldnt have any sort of effect on the ph would it? if so would it be better to use a cannister?

[FishLover]

What is the pH of your tap water?

I test mine few times to make sure. First out of the tap into a cup, then waited for 6 hours, 24 hours and 48 hours for more tests. That gives me a good picture of how's my water changes are going to affect the pH.

BTW, 6.2 or 6.4 is perfect for Discus. I'm not sure why you want to bring it up to pH 7?

[Ben]

I had "issues" with my PH..

until i discovered Seachem's Neutral regulator!

http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/neytralRegulator.html

[Nathan]

IMO opinion an limited experience 6.2 is to low for them an harder to keep stable, i find the discus really dont like it.

[samir]

IMO opinion an limited experience 6.2 is to low for them an harder to keep stable, i find the discus really dont like it.
Nathan 6.2 is a very good ph to have, something like 5.8 would be ideal, if you can keep it there. your fish will have remarkably less health issues at that ph. mine stays about 7, but 6 is where I wish it would be. what they dont like is the ph going up and down. remember a ph of 6 is 10 times more than 7 and 5 would be 10 times more than 6 and 100 times more than 7.

[Bill T.]

I've gone back to using kH generator. I disolve a teaspoon in a jug of aquarium water at water change time and slowly add it to the aquarium.
Even a little bit of kH will keep your pH at 7.0 to 7.1.
However, that having been said, if keeping a stable pH is a big problem, there will be other causes like too much feeding, waste in the tank, too long between water changes, etc.

[Nathan]

thats the biggest issue samir is if im ABLE to keep it there, which i am not able to do thats why, i wish to keep it at 6.8, as i find it easy to maintain an the discus seem to like it.

the fact my ph keeps dropping is due to low kh not over feeding an waterchanges.

[FishLover]

put some shells in the tank and that will bering up the kh and stable the pH.

Or, as Ben said, use Seachem's Neutral regulator. It will bring up the kh for you.

Fish waste produce acid, Co2 will drop your pH, dead plants and uneaten food also produce acid. If your water has no kh at all, it will crash your ph. I thought that only happens when the pH is much lower than 6.2. So, there maybe other reasons for your pH swings.

You may want to test the water at different time so you can have a good idea why the pH swing happens. Have some tap water set aside and do the compare tests for the same time intervals with tank water and the water outside the tank. That way you can find the reason for the pH swings and a solution that will not cost you so much.