[Remster]

My ph measures 7.4 out of the tap and is too low to measure from my tank tonight.

Early Thurs AM my power went out did not come back on until around noon Fri. I had taken the filter media out and put it in plastic bags at 5:00 AM. At noon I replaced most of the white fiber and rinsed the rest of the media with tank water. By Sat. evening the tank was cloudy. After a small WC that night and Sun night it was clear.

Today (Mon) the fish are showing no signs of distress. My crypts have been melting. My water has no buffering capacity - the kh is very low.

It's a 55 gal., no CO2, 2 40 watt T12's, 2213 eheim.

I know not to change the ph too fast. I'll keep doing small WCs to try to stabilize things. Any other suggestions?
Thanks!

 

[Remster]

Thanks, Matt, for the quick response. I didn't want to take the time to research this right now. I appreciate the quick response!

 

[Remster]

Thanks for all the responses!

Qwertus - the KH out of my tap is almost nonexistent (GH, too). I haven't had problems with the pH before this. It usually runs between 7.2 and 7.4. I've been told not to worry about the KH but I'm still not sure I'm comfortable with that.

Eric - I'm using Black flourite. I changed to that a little less than a year ago with a dusting of peat and mulm on the bottom. With the GH and KH so low out of the tap, and the pH at 7.4 I'm concerned about the pH being too high if I try to raise the other 2 parameters. I had been thinking of using Equilibrium for to raise the GH for the plants, though.

maknwar - I think it was a combination of bacteria dying off when I lost power and the crypts melting that caused an ammonia spike and the cloudiness. I have to figure out a better WC routine. I don't do it very often.

My tank seems to be kind of a hybrid. It's not really el natural, it's definitely not high tech. I get all kinds of conflicting advice from people who are very involved with aquariums, whether as a hobby or professionally, as to how often and how much water I should be changing. Also, I think I should be upgrading my lights. A few other things could be tweaked, but for now I'll deal with the pH.

Thanks, guys.