Changing Ph
Tom, Acidification of the aquarium water is a natural tendency of the process of your ongoing nitrogen cycle. I would not do anything to abruptly change the pH in adjusting it back to 7.6, but for ease of maintenance it would be a good idea to start taking steps in that direction.
There are several interacting factors going on here with the water of all tanks, as the nitrogen cycle progresses, but your one tank in question is undergoing this at a faster rate. One of these factors is your buffering capacity of your water which, all coming from the same source (your tap) in each tank, is of necessity consistant with that of any other tank. Therefore, the difference for the pH in one tank from the others is the particular tank’s infrastructure (including its environmental materials and its bioload).
For starters, we can address the possibility of different substrate, rocks or any other carbonate sources in this tank as opposed to your other tanks — which may have more of these materials. Barring that possibility, if all the tanks’ materials are uniform, we can look at any differences in your filtration systems between all your tanks. The tank in question may not have adequate filtration, or may even have more filtration than your other tanks, resulting in more efficient break-down (and increased acidification) of its wastes before their physical removal via PWC’s (partial water changes). Part of this difference may be the result of a difference you may be making in cleaning each tanks’ substrate or in maintaining each individual filter.
Lastly, BUT FAR FROM LEAST, is the possibility of this tank in question having a larger bioload than the other tanks, which will increase the acidification of the water at a faster rate if the same comparable PWC amounts are made with all tanks (and all other factors are equal). This was my first inclination as to this tanks’ difference and I would venture to guess its one of your 10 gallon tanks rather than your 20, but not actually knowing the size of or how many fish you have in this tank, I cannot say for sure — I only note that you state “all tanks have about the same fish types.”
After checking out the first few items in an effort towards more possible consistancy, I would recommend your employing larger weekly PWC’s, i.e., if you’re doing 20% PWC’s on your other tanks, do 35% PWC’s for a brief period until your pH comes back up to 7.6, after which 25% or 30% PWC’s may be adequate — but again, look at all possibilities mentioned here to better stabilze things. Ray
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