pH below 7.6 tank crash

[Tommy McDonald]

Local fish store has seachem ptime now would a RO unit help remove any of these out the wayer

 

[Tommy McDonald]

Think ot ot due to my tap water before the move I had minimal amount of nitrate using 5 gallon water jugs from Wal-Mart check my tap water this morning nitrates are at 20 and ammonia was 0. Can a major nitrate spike kill fish before the move my tank would stay between 0-2 and last night it was off the chart

 

[Andrewalex11]

I had the same issue when I moved my tank the other week, though I didn't use tap water, I did have a way low pH of about 7.7-7.8 steady. The way I decided to go about this was take in air that had the LEAST amount of CO2 as possible.

My thought process was somewhat of the same idea on why people use CO2 filters in businesses and public areas for their tanks, as CO2 rises the pH drops. But without a CO2 scrubber I decided to use good old air from Mother Earth (around 400ppm CO2 way lower than inside) by elongating the line from my protein skimmer air intake out my window. This seemed to get me back to about 8.0 within a day.

My theory on why this happened: The live stock transferred in buckets of the old tank water not being properly mixed with fresh oxygen and lack of light cause the CO2 levels to rise drastically.

What I would do in your situation: I hate using buffers to artificially fix a problem but in your case I would use reef buffer (slowly over the course of an hour or so) to artificially raise the pH, get an air stone (or protien slimmer intake) to inject air from OUTSIDE and get your lights on.

Side note in case you don't have a refugium:

This is one of the not so spoken about factors about a refugium too; though a great nutrient exporter, it also uses the CO2 in your tank and releases fresh oxygen buffering your pH to a nice stable level.

Good luck!

 

[Andrewalex11]

Also for the ammonia, ammo chips are a good way to get filter it out. (It's just zeolite)

 

[Luno]

I think we can safely say it was most likely an ammonia spike that killed the fish. Curious if your asking now would ro be better what were you using before you moved the tank?

And if all your fish died I'd be doing large water changes, unless that is the reason for not doing would Be you still need tap water

 

[Tommy McDonald]

I think we can safely say it was most likely an ammonia spike that killed the fish. Curious if your asking now would ro be better what were you using before you moved the tank?

And if all your fish died I'd be doing large water changes, unless that is the reason for not doing would Be you still need tap water

5 gallon jugs from Walmart already filtered, I lived in an apartment with chlorine in the water

Running a canaster filter had to use tap water as emergency in my new house

Tested my parameters ammonia was high nitrate and nitrites we're off the chart high

 

[Tommy McDonald]

But will RO unit take nitrate and nitrites out the water I now live in the sticks and far from a store

 

[DancingShark]

Ammonia was your likely cause. Nitrates and nitrate aren't as bad as people make it out to be in marine life.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

But will RO unit take nitrate and nitrites out the water

Good question I know the DI stage removes remaining tds but I’m not sure which stage removes nitrates from the water. My guess is your carbon block but maybe someone on the #reefsquad knows

 

[DancingShark]

There’s a few ways to buffer ph I think @Humblefish knows of one using household products but ph swings don’t kill fish as easy as ammonia or diseases. I hear stories of people that stress fish then they die but don’t know why and sometimes it’s the weakened immune system from stress to blame. But in this situation I’m more worried about the tap water

Baked baking soda works well.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Ammonia was your likely cause. Nitrates and nitrate aren't as bad as people make it out to be in marine life.

Without a doubt.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

High nitrates are prolly from the ammonia. The levels of what your reading are after a month of your tank slowly breaking down high ammonia

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Baked baking soda works well.

That’s what it was I couldn’t find where I read that on here. Thank you

 

[Tommy McDonald]

Corals seem fine and and my snails are alive I check my parameters before I moved everything was just barely traceable now everything is spiked I have to agree had the tank set up for 4-5 months with 3 fish. Moved it late december added 2 more fish total of 5 I think added to big of a bio load and couldn't handle the move

 

[Tommy McDonald]

So I re tested my tap water is is what I got out of my tap now I thought I did my pH test wrong same result twice checked my tank and it changed the pic with all 3 test was out of the tap and the single greyish pH test was out my tank could pH kill fish quick if it's ways off?

 

[Tommy McDonald]

This was out of my fish tank

 

[laverda]

PH of 7.6 alone should not have killed anything. An ammonia spike would but what would have caused that?
You were not really clear enough on exactly the time frame of things to accurately diagnose what happened. My guess is you tap water caused the issue. Most areas use chlorine and or chlorimine in the water supply. Both are toxic to fish, especially chlorimine which does not dissipate like chlorine. If I recall chlorimine is chlorine and ammonia combined. You old tap water may not have had chlorimine in it. Your new water may have more chlorine and or chlorimine in it. You can get you area water report on line and see.
Either way using tap water is very risky. Tap water also has iron, copper, Florida, hormones, lead and lots of other stuff bad for us and more so for fish. Copper is another strong possibility although not likely in this case since your invertes and corals are doing well. But it is just a matter of time before copper builds up to toxic levels when using tap water.
I highly recommend you invest in a good RO/DI unit with a TDS meter so you can monitor its performance.

 

[Fishfinder]

Are you on well water or city water?

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

There is no reliable or long-term way to control pH in a reef tank aside from controlling CO2 levels in the tank. Sodium carbonate (soda ash or "baked" baking soda) will raise it temporarily, as will sodium hydroxide, but both of these effects are temporary.

The reason you see a pH increase with sodium carbonate is because CO2 is removed from the water as a result of the addition. Carbonate tends to exist mostly as bicarbonate in seawater. When you add the carbonate, it tends to transition to bicarbonate, which requires CO2. The overall concentration of CO2 in your tank water drops, and your tank's pH elevates slightly. If your home is like a vast majority of the homes out there and has elevated CO2, however, your tank's pH will drop again as CO2 dissolves back into the water and reaches equilibrium with the surrounding air.

Something similar occurs when you add calcium hydroxide (kalk). The hydroxide from the calcium hydroxide forms carbonate by joining with CO2 from the water (the reaction is a bit more complex. Full explanation by Randy can be found here). The end result is lowering the CO2 concentration in your tank. Again, though, if your home is average and has elevated CO2, your CO2 levels will simply rise again with time.

Baking soda will not increase pH, it will actually cause it to drop. Most of the carbonate in seawater exists as bicarbonate, but a small amount exists as carbonate. When you add pure sodium bicarbonate to your tank, some of the bicarb that is added transitions to carbonate, and CO2 is formed, which lowers pH. Since most of the bicarb remains bicarb, this pH drop is very small, but it still occurs.

It is unlikely the pH caused your tank crash. The pH could be low as a result of your tank crash, as the process of turning ammonia into nitrates lowers pH. But the low pH is unlikely to have caused a die-off that quickly.

 

[Tommy McDonald]

I was on city water so used 5 gallon drinking water from Walmart to use for water changes etc moved into my new house on my own well only thing I did different was I used 7 gallons of tap water to finish topping it off when filled the tank on Thursday night by Friday night all the fish died in a matter of an half and hour. As on now all my acans, nem, snails and zoas are fine and still can see pods swimming in the tank that I put in for the mandarin that's why I'm so confused as to what happened

The pH test that almost looks like apple juice came out of my well.

The greyish one came out of my fish tank 30 min ago