don't worry about pH

 

I was surprised to see any reading that low but then saw the RO. How about letting tit drift higher by just using some tap water. Austin tap is very hard /alkaline and if it is done slowly with normal water changes, you can achieve both higher as well as cheaper and easier. If you want a slow release hard item, I would think it logical to piece a limestone rock off one of the trails.
But the tapwater will have it already dissolved in it.
But for long term, I find that most plants/fish are not nearly as fussy as we might read.
Welcome to the forum!

 

Thank you! This would definitely be the easier option. Since somebody commented above about being careful on bringing up the pH because most likely there are no bacteria in my tank how should I go about doing that? Should I buy some of the bottled bacteria found in pet stores every water change? or let it grow naturally?

I'm currently doing 30% water changes every 2-3 weeks.

 

We sometimes overthink our biological filter. The bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrites to nitrates are a natural occurrence when we put fish in water for awhile. As long as we don't drastically overstock our tank, so excessive amounts of ammonia are being generated by the fish, the bacteria colonies in our tank will adjust to meet the "demand". If we have very low pH, the ammonia (NH4) will be in the form of ammonium (NH3-), but plants readily use ammonium as a nutrient, so if the tank has lots of growing plants, that ammonium will help the plants, and not be in the water long enough to bother the fish.

People who use CO2 in their planted tanks will almost always have a pH below 6.4, and they don't suffer from doing so. That should show that you don't need to be concerned with having the water at a 6.4 or lower pH. And, if we had to worry about getting rid of the ammonia eating bacteria we would have a serious problem, but we don't have to worry about maintaining our ammonia eating bacteria colony. Nature takes care of that for us.

This is not to say that you should ignore the need for that bacteria when starting up a new tank. You just don't have to continually concern yourself about it. Fish only tanks, with lots of fish, are a different thing entirely.

 

Ok, I probably shouldn't worry too much about it then. I only have 4 rooted plants (I have 0 clue what they actually are) and 1 moss ball. 7 fish, 4 shrimp total in 16 gallons. Is that enough plants to help absorb the ammonium? Should I worry about being overstock?

 

It is important to know about the bacteria as it is what helps us. Do some reading about the "nitrogen cycle" if it is new to you. Waste becomes ammonia, as that shows in the tank it is dangerous to fish if it becomes too high. Ammonia burns the tender things like gills. something like sunburn? Too much is bad but then there is also a cure built in. As the ammonia shows up the bacteria who use ammonia is also going to be there and begin to use convert ammonia to nitrite. Nitrite also not good but at that point a second group of bacteria begins to process nitrite to nitrate which is not very toxic is we keep the water changes done. So we get some ammonia of ammonium and some is used by plants. But if the tank has been running long enough both groups of bacteria will be there and the level kind of floats up and down as the food supply allows.
Be aware of the hazards and keep up the water changes to remove pollution (ammonia, nitrite or nitrate) while it all settles into a routine. The best thing I can do is keep from making sudden changes to the whole thing. Buy only one or two fish if adding, don't clean too thoroughly for a time as cleaning does knock down the bacteria numbers. don't clean the filter really well and at the same time decide to move a bunch of stuff around.
I would suggest keeping an ammonia test kit on hand as well as a test for nitrate. As you learn what your fish normally do, you will be able to spot anything that looks "off" about how they act and that is a good time to test for ammonia and it is often good to keep some idea of how fast the nitrate builds up. Overstocked to me means I have more fish than I can haul out the nitrate on the schedule life gives me! Plants help use the nitrates but they can also mean more work so it comes down to getting a balance.

 

pH 5.9 isn't too low. Do you inject co2 ? Try removing any recently added objects.

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No C02, and I haven't added/changed anything since the very first set up of the tank. I'm trying to add a picture of it but for some reason it is not taking at all.

 

Actually your tank is NOT having any problem. Why are you bothered in those decimals 5.9 6.4 etc. 5.9 means 6 only in aquarium hobby. Do some water change then at least your mind will be relaxed.

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Ok I finally figured out the pictures. Here's how it looks.....

Bump:

I just want to make sure that the fish will not be harmed by the acidity of the water. Thanks!

 

Your tetras will be happy with acidic water, that's natural to them. I assume the mollies (i think that's what i see) will acclimate and be ok.

Also, don't trust those test kits, they are always a bit off.

 

Thank you!

 

You should be just fine, Monica, with pH around 6.0 with the fish you have.
And since you're using RO water, and assuming you're also doing regular water changes, it wouldn't be unusual to have nitrates @ '0'.

If it would make you feel a better you could slowly, naturally, and safely raise the pH somewhat by adding a small bag of (calcium-based) shell/coral fragments (available @ most LFS) to your tank. Remove it when the pH rises to the level you wish.

 

Thank you I will look into this!

Your platties, being liverbearers, probably won't love the low pH. The others will be fine. Generally most livebearers want higher pH, higher hardness water. Your hardness isn't too bad, but they'd likely do better in a separate tank.

I unfortunately can't take them home since my 20 is stock full of guppies and guppy babies. I don't think there is room for them there. I will look into increasing the pH with the shells as mentioned above.

Thank you everyone!

 

^^^^^^^^^^^
What he said. You just want to make sure it somewhat consistent and there are no huge swings in the ph for any reason.

 

Your platties, being liverbearers, probably won't love the low pH. The others will be fine. Generally most livebearers want higher pH, higher hardness water. Your hardness isn't too bad, but they'd likely do better in a separate tank.

 

Hoppy, talking about CO2 injected tanks is not the same as this situation. Few people inject CO2 at night, so the pH that may be below 6.4 at some point in the day will go up most times at least to 7.4 at night. As such, the bacteria colonies will be okay, since there's always an ammonia source for some part of the day.

Go run a tank at 6 straight for a few months and then use baking soda to bring it to 7. Add some ammonia and see how much nitrate you get...not much. You will get a lot of ammonia from a fish load like the OP is running, and there aren't a ton of plants to consume it. The toxicity of ammonia goes WAY up the higher the pH runs.

Hence why I'm suggesting slow changes, or leave as is and know the platties will suffer. Plants also need a little while to adapt from processing ammonium to processing nitrate.

Right now, I guarantee that if you take the fish out and add a fishless cycle worth of ammonia, you're not getting more than a tiny amount of nitrate if any that will form. Hence no cycle. I suspect you can add baking soda and get the same result, because the bacteria won't be there that will do the conversion.