I Think I have a pH Problem Too
I have a 28 gal which was set up in December. It contains 3 platties, 2 angels, 2 cory cats, 1 albino rainbow shark (small), 4 rasbora tetras, and a small bushy nose pleco. The substrate is natural (aquarium) gravel. There are a bunch of plastic plants and a plastic aquarium vase decoration. The filter is a Penguin BioWheel 150. I normally use 2 cartridges in the filter, replacing one every month. I removed a very gunky filter cartridge last week and didn’t replace it because I wasn’t doing a water change and didn’t have aquarium water in which to soak the new filter. I tested water today prior to regular maintenance. Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate were all zero. pH was 6.4. Tap water pH is 7.2. I haven’t tested gH or kH yet, but my county’s water is supposedly moderately hard to hard (http://www.fcwa.org/water/hardness.htm). I’m going to get a gH and kH test kit today or tomorrow.
I did a 30% water change (I usually do 20% every 2-3 weeks) this morning. When I pulled out the filter cartridge, the blue flossy stuff felt a bit slimy (probably normal), but it also felt like it was disintegrating — in fact there was a large strand in the filter box. When I rinsed it in the old tank water (I was going to re-use it along with a new one) the blue part started tearing apart. I ended up tearing off a good size piece of the blue stuff, rinsing it in the old tank water and putting it in the filter with the new cartridge. I’ll pull it out and add a second cartridge in a couple days.
My fish seem happy. Should I do anything about the pH, which seems to be dropping? After the 0% water change, the pH was still 6.4 — no change.
Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Category: UniQuaria
