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Effects of kH and temperature to the pH?


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Hello,

 

I am wondering if anyone has good knowledge about the effects of kH and temperature to the pH?

 

I noticed that sometimes the pH of my small 10G tank fluctuated, but the substrate, ADA Amazonia, was still fresh. To this day, it has still not been a year since putting the new substrate.

 

For instance, as the season changed from winter-spring-early summer, the pH seemed to have increased to 6.3 ish (before it was very consistent at 6.0). Plus, during that season transition, I ended up losing blue bolts and some high grade CRS as the temperature unexpectedly increased too much (I suspect it was the temp. because other parameters were all within the normal range) - it was my first time trying out BB :(.

So, in order to solve the temperature issue, I moved my 10G tank down to the basement, and now the temperature is consistent at 20~22 degrees Celsius. What is interesting is that the pH is now back to being 6.0; the API test kit appears as yellow! Now, I have more than 40 shrimplets which are very healthy and growing. Many have successfully entered the juvenile stage. 

 

+ I think that about 3 months after setting up ADA Amazonia, I noticed the pH change once, which I did not consider seriously as shrimps were still healthy.

 

- I did some search online and read that the low kH levels could lead to the fluctuation of the pH...

 

So my question is: Does the temperature usually affect the pH signficantly in a tank with RO/DI water + salty shrimp GH (hence kH <1)?

 

Or... could it be that the substrate was defective? I doubt that honestly but meh there could be many other possibilities. It could be wrong observations, too (but others also noticed the pH increase!).

 

The 10G tank parameters:

pH 6.0 or less

ammonia, nitrite, nitrate 0

GH 6

KH <1

TDS 120

No CO2 injection (only have mosses and low light plants for shrimps)

 

During the season change and shrimp deaths: the temperature increased a lot, and pH increased by ~0.3

 

Thanks!


 

 

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