PH making me crazy

[loverland]

I just set up three new 20 longs with SL Aqua Soil, my first venture into buffered substrate. Here's what I can't figure out: My RO water comes out at 6-8ppm TDS and has a pH of 6.4. I remineralized to about 130 TDS, filled the tanks that had the SL Aqua Soil, added a few low tech plants, driftwood/cholla and leaves, and a large seeded sponge filter from another established tank. No shrimp yet.

 

After a week, the pH is coming in at 7.4. What the @#%^ is causing it to go up? I figured the Aqua Soil would have brought it down from 6.4. Ammonia, nitrates, nitrites are all zip.

 

Thoughts?

[aotf]

What are you remineralizing with? 

[loverland]

Salty shrimp gh

[aotf]

Dang, nothing comes to mind.
Do you have any leftover SL Aqua Soil from the same batch?

It might be worth bubbling some of your distilled water for a couple days to see how the pH changes, then doing the same thing with substrate. Could be a bad batch of substrate, although I don't even know what that would mean. If it stays low with both, you know it's something else in the tank.
 

Doesn't sound like you have any weird rocks in there. You didn't do anything funky like try to raise pH to speed up cycling or anything like that?

[loverland]

No rocks at all. No chemicals to speed up cycling. I’m going to do a significant water change. Maybe all of it. 

 

Does salty shrimp increase ph? That’s the only thing I’ve added. 

 

I’ve found 2 tiny neos and a michling in this tank. Must have snuck over on the driftwood and filter.   I put plain RO water in at first, then remineralized in the tank, which I never do. But that means those tiny shrimp were in 8TDS water for a few days and lived. 

[ILikeAsianBooty]

I recently cycled with sl...I've notice it takes like 2-3 weeks for the pH to really kick down to 5-6 pH. Hows your depth?

The 1st week I did tap, 2nd-4th DI w/blue wizard. Also add in liquid beneficial bacteria to speed things up abit.

[loverland]

I’ve got about 1-1.5” in, but remember it’s a 20 long, so there’s more tank bottom here. I don’t need the ph to be crazy low. Hell, staying at 6.4 would probably do the trick. But jumping up to 7.4?!?

 

The tank is cycled now thanks to the big sponge filter. I did add a little magic powder to help kickstart biofilm, but that shouldn’t impact ph, right?

[ILikeAsianBooty]

50 minutes ago, loverland said:

I’ve got about 1-1.5” in, but remember it’s a 20 long, so there’s more tank bottom here. I don’t need the ph to be crazy low. Hell, staying at 6.4 would probably do the trick. But jumping up to 7.4?!?

 

The tank is cycled now thanks to the big sponge filter. I did add a little magic powder to help kickstart biofilm, but that shouldn’t impact ph, right?

Give it 2 weeks if not contact them. Ik Eric is a member here soz dont worry too much it will get down to the pH you want eventually.

[Memphis118]

Hmm.. I would do another water change with RODI water and let it sit for a day or two before measuring again. Do you have a picture of your tank, so we can use as reference, just in case.

[aotf]

2 hours ago, loverland said:

Does salty shrimp increase ph? That’s the only thing I’ve added. 

 

Salty Shrimp is a brand that makes many shrimp-keeping products. Among those are remineralizers.

 

SS Mineral Shrimp KH/GH+ will bump up kH and increase pH.

SS Bee Shrimp GH+ will only affect GH so won't have any effect on pH.

 

Pretty sure you already know that, i just wanted to clarify terminology since the question (and potential answers) could end up being unclear.

[JonRon]

9 hours ago, loverland said:

I just set up three new 20 longs with SL Aqua Soil, my first venture into buffered substrate. Here's what I can't figure out: My RO water comes out at 6-8ppm TDS and has a pH of 6.4. I remineralized to about 130 TDS, filled the tanks that had the SL Aqua Soil, added a few low tech plants, driftwood/cholla and leaves, and a large seeded sponge filter from another established tank. No shrimp yet.

 

After a week, the pH is coming in at 7.4. What the @#%^ is causing it to go up? I figured the Aqua Soil would have brought it down from 6.4. Ammonia, nitrates, nitrites are all zip.

 

Thoughts?

Hello Loverland,

Are you using any CO2 with this tank? 

What is your KH?

I have no experience with SL Aqua soil. 

You said your tank is cycled because of large seeded filter. How Long has your tanks been up? One week- four weeks? 

Also you shouldn't mix your SS GH+ inside of your tank. Always mix in bucket before putting it inside Aquariums. That could be the reason of your ph swings.

 

I Keep a ph of 5.3-5.6 for my Taiwan bee Shrimp. I use SS GH+, Glasgarten Environment soil, and rain water with a ph of 6.5.

Give your Aquariums a full month or so. If ph does not drop to your desired Level contact the seller. 

 

Kind regards,

JonRon

[loverland]

@aotf - Yup. I use SS KH/GH for my neos and SS GH for my caridina. My neo tanks are typically a little higher PH, so I figured KH/GH upped PH a bit, but I wasn't sure if GH+ only did, too. Glad to hear it doesn't. 

 

@JonRon - No CO2. I'll have to test KH tonight to give you an accurate reading, but my caridina tanks are typically around 1KH. Tank has been up one week, but is fully cycled. SL Aqua Soil doesn't have the ammonia leaching issue of other buffered substrates. My ammonia reading is 0. I've had a fishroom of 10-20 tanks for about 20 years now, and seeded sponge filters are magic cyclers.  I do understand that cycled and ready for shrimp are two different things. Also, I always add remineralizer before the water hits the tank, but in this case, I figured I'd start with plain RO water, then do a full water change. But, the water parameters (outside of ph) looked solid, so I added SS GH+. I'll still do a big water change to see if I can get the ph to chill out. Then I'll give it some time to see if it drops. 

 

@Memphis118 - I'll try to get a pic tonight for reference. 

[loverland]

Here are a couple images. The new tanks are the three 20s. The 6 30 breeders are all existing.

 

New tank parameters:

tds 120

kh 0-1

gh 5

ph still 7.4

 

I remineralized some RO water that I’ll use for a big water change tomorrow. That water, at the parameters above, is holding at ph 6.4. 

 

We’ll see if it jumps to 7.4 again. 

[ILikeAsianBooty]

Yeah, I was guna say if the kh is at 0-1 the pH must be below 7.4 lol. Give it a couple of weeks tbh. My tank cycled at 6.4-6.6 for 2 weeks before it went down below 6.

[loverland]

This has reached a somewhat comical level. I filled 4 buckets with RO water, then remineralized. All were right about 6.4. I let the water sit for a few days, as I couldn't get to water changes. I tested the water in each bucket before adding. 6.4, 6.5, 7.2, 7.4!

 

I did a water change on one 20 gallon tank. It was at 7.3 pre change. I replaced about 70% with 6.4 water. Tested it at about 6.9. Two days later, the tank is at 7.3.

 

Fun! At this point, it just seems that my ph is what it is, and nothing is going to change it.