# PH problems and Fish Issues



## roccov12345 (Sep 26, 2008)

Some of you may have seen or even posted in my thread a while ago titled "Help, can't get it under control."

Long story short, I was having all types of problems with burn, eyes were cloudy, tails and fins were spot burned and I could not for the life of me figure the problem. I was having unstable ammonia and nitrate issues which were thought to be the problem. I had corrected those time and time again with no signs of resolution.

This led to the PH test. After changing w/ tab water at 7.0, adding baking soda I could not get the PH over 6. It would constantly fall back down after a 24 hour time period. After weeks of pulling my hair out I decided to remove a piece of driftwood that my fiance had purchased for me from an LFS. The next day! all issues had panned out. PH stable, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate stable. I have yet to have another issue with PH since I removed that piece of wood. I'm assuming it must of been leaching hard since I did not boil the piece. Live and learn I guess........

Low PH can be a MAJOR problem in the aquarium.


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## Murphy18 (Oct 17, 2008)

Glad to hear that.


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## Piranha Dan (Nov 11, 2007)

Flucuating PH messed with your benificial bacteria and caused your ammo/nitrite spikes. Good to hear you figured out the problem. What kind of wood was it and how big a piece? Seems amazing that it could leach bad enough to drop your PH that drastically for weeks.


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## roccov12345 (Sep 26, 2008)

Piranha Dan said:


> Flucuating PH messed with your benificial bacteria and caused your ammo/nitrite spikes. Good to hear you figured out the problem. What kind of wood was it and how big a piece? Seems amazing that it could leach bad enough to drop your PH that drastically for weeks.


It was about 12" long 6"wide by 6" high. I want to say it was for a reptile tank although I don't think there would be any different precautionary processing steps that the manufacturer would take re reptile vs. fish. It was in a 55 gallon so maybe as a ratio, wood to tank size, it had an effect. All I know is that as soon as it came out; all better.


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## Yanfloist (Oct 1, 2007)

hey..hey!! I have similar problem too, but theres not drift wood in my tank, and my pH is 7.4. I am staring to think that its the sand...


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## roccov12345 (Sep 26, 2008)

Yanfloist said:


> hey..hey!! I have similar problem too, but theres not drift wood in my tank, and my pH is 7.4. I am staring to think that its the sand...


Yeah mine was actually really low, below 6. What's your tap water measuring in at. Maybe you should add a piece of this mystery ph dropping wood lol.


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## Piranha Dan (Nov 11, 2007)

Yanfloist said:


> hey..hey!! I have similar problem too, but theres not drift wood in my tank, and my pH is 7.4. I am staring to think that its the sand...


What's wrong with 7.4? Mine's not much lower then that and my fish are fine.


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## Yanfloist (Oct 1, 2007)

Piranha Dan said:


> hey..hey!! I have similar problem too, but theres not drift wood in my tank, and my pH is 7.4. I am staring to think that its the sand...


What's wrong with 7.4? Mine's not much lower then that and my fish are fine.
[/quote]
Well, that's the thing, I don't know what's wrong with my fish....


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## roccov12345 (Sep 26, 2008)

Yanfloist said:


> hey..hey!! I have similar problem too, but theres not drift wood in my tank, and my pH is 7.4. I am staring to think that its the sand...


What's wrong with 7.4? Mine's not much lower then that and my fish are fine.
[/quote]
Well, that's the thing, I don't know what's wrong with my fish....
[/quote]

What kind of issues are you having?


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