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could CRSs survive a 4.2 pH?
this just confused me. so do you have 2 tanks one with the ph of 4.2 and one of 6.4? i say if they are breeding they are happy and ok. can you give more detales about the set up like are you using a buffering substrate. is there drift wood? i know in my 1 gal tanks i put some drift wood in and in a matter of 2 days it took my ph from about 7.5 down to 5. might have been lower as my kit measures 5, 6,6.5 and in .5 increments after that up to like 8.5 or something. so tank size might play a part. what are the other parameters too that might play a roll in it. have you tested your water right out of the tap and then 24 hours later after it has been setting out to degas? i know my tap can go from PH in the high 8's down to about 7 after sitting a whileended up buying cheap pH probe because API goes only to 6.0. Do you know of any liquid test that will measure in the 4.0 - 6.0? Probe is measuring a tank that is 6.4. Know general causes of low pH? I know I can put some corals to raise the pH, but since the CRS are breeding, etc, did not know if I should mess with raising pH too quickly.
just tested my 55g low tech tank - cardinals, clown loaches, rasboras, lots of plants has large driftwood (which I had removed another several weeks ago). reading at 3.3 using the probe. will do a 20% WC and see new readings.
think my husband has industrial pH meter at work, will have him test all my tanks. this is so shocking.
KH: 1 - 2You don't have pH of 3.3. Your meter needs to be calibrated. A nice liquid test kit will be fine, as it's doubtful you have pH below what it can read.
What's your KH? GH?
since I can't read the Chinese writing and feels more like dry powder that I need to mix - only thing on there is "make up 250ml" any idea if I am to add 250ml distilled water to the powder to get buffer solution. That's why I had some industrial 7.0 soln to use.Your probe should have come with calibration liquid. Even my cheapo ebay one did. Something isn't right. I use one of strongest buffering substrate out there, Netlea and I get down to 5pH. I don't know what could drop it down to 3.3pH. I couldn't even get that low in pure black peat extract when I was playing with peat.
Tank reading 4.2 (lava rocks, aquasoil - this has been the same setup for over 1 yr and only last months did it veer away from a stable 6.2.What's in the tank? Substrate, wood, rock, etc?
Sounds like something isn't calibrated.
Tank reading 4.2 (lava rocks, aquasoil - this has been the same setup for over 1 yr and only last months did it veer away from a stable 6.2.
Tank reading 4.4 (reg Petco gravel)
Tank reading 3.3 (river rock natural gravel, large piece of driftwood (removed 1 already).
all my cardinal tetras (30) are fine (~1"+), rasbora are fine, did lose a few clown loaches. But I agree, with such low pH, I would expect the fishes to be decimated within a few days.Your fish would be dying in pH that low, as that acidity would damage their gills quickly.
all my cardinal tetras (30) are fine (~1"+), rasbora are fine, did lose a few clown loaches. But I agree, with such low pH, I would expect the fishes to be decimated within a few days.