Musicmanryann
Member
Hey all, I am posting this here, though I am not sure if it is a filtration issue, water parameters issue, and/or where the two overlap, but I had an experience last night that was a real head scratcher. I am sort of a newb so that isn't saying much I guess, but I have done a bit of searching within here and googling about what happened first and can't seem to find anything, so hoping the many seasoned veterans may be able to provide some insight. I originally posted about this within my journal, but also posting here as I am worried about it happening again, and still struggling with lower pH a bit. Below is what I posted, but if you don't want to go to the journal, the context is that yesterday I added Amano, zebra shrimp, and nerite snails, to my first planted tank yesterday and this is what transpired:
Like I said, this might be an issue with my water parameters, but even today that bowl of water with Purigen is reading 4.15 on pH meter. I mean, the pH drop i feel was almost instant after I turned the filter back on after adding the Purigen. I mean, I know several on here don't think that highly of purigen, but I'd still like to use it, but also don't want to kill my cute little shrimps and snails with highly acidic water either. Fortunately it appears most survived the episode (the T Zebras are hiding a lot today) Even today, the water is a little more acidic that it was before when it was pretty stable. If anything I'd like to learn about what happened as i am curious. Thoughts?
Thanks in advance!
Ryan
" Every once in awhile I always tilt the biomaster from side to side to release trapped air inside. No idea why I do this, I think it might help the flow or something if air isn't trapped or whatever, but yesterday I did it and a big cloud of white murky water came gushing out the lily pipe and clouded up the tank, along with these very tiny squiggly wormy things. Not wider than a hair and not much longer, but definitely squiggling on their own accord. I must've knocked something loose, I guess. I had to run for a bit and when I got home the tank was back to normal, thankfully. However, the episode did remind me I keep forgetting to add Purigen to the filter to get a good polish. During the dark start I obviously didn't care about this, so I decided i would wait to add the Purigen until I get the tank planted and I keep forgetting. Well tonight, for some reason i remembered and for some reason I was bound to make it happen. Once the lights turned off, I pulled open the biomaster and added in a bag of Purigen. Easy enough, I popped the lid back on and turned it all back on and got things flowing again, but once again Tilting the canister back and forth. While I was doing this I noticed out of the corner of my eye the Amanos started going nuts. Something was wrong. After some initial troubleshooting I pulled out my pH meter and even though an hour ago it was reading 5.85, it was now reading 4.45. What the actual #*&$😟. The first thing my mind went to was the Purigen. I quickly grabbed it back out the filter and got the filter running again. Then I decided to do a quick water change. This made the pH go up to 4.65. Not good enough. The amanos were still acting frantic, and the zebra snails had retreated to above the water line. Not good. After frantically trying to figure out what to do, (there wasn't time to come here and ask advice) I ended up just running fresh RO water (it is same temp as tank) into the tank while simultaneously draining the water, while simultaneously watching the pH meter go up. About five minutes later the pH was above 5.25 and I started getting worried about re-mineralizing the water, so I stopped and got the GH where it needed to be. By this time the shrimps had seem to calm down and the snails were retreating back into the water and back to cleaning the aquarium walls. I decided it was time to leave well enough alone. I am leaving the lights off for now, hoping everyone will calm down in there overnight. Without the light I cannot see if the Tangerine Tigers are ok or not. The Amanos seem fine. Time will tell I guess....?
What happened?? I have looked it up and seachem says Purigen doesn't alter water parameters. I currently have the bag of Purigen sitting in a bowl of water that has a pH of 4.35. That same bowl of water was at 5.85 before I added the bad of Purigen. I feel like this has something to do with my low kH (using Amazonia so KH is <1), but I really am at a loss Another thought I had was when i opened the filter there were pockets of anaerobic activity in there and introducing a bunch of air disrupted that releasing Hydrogen sulfide (I did smell sulfur during my troubleshooting) . Here though, I am admittedly grasping at straws, and talking about things I don't know nearly enough about. Current parameters are Zero NH3, NO2, > 10 NO3. pH 5.25. (GH 7, KH <1) I have an aerator stone going hoping to add in as much O2 and remove as much CO2 as possible, but no idea if that is stupid or pointless or both. All I know is whatever happened it caused a very fast and drastic change to my pH. Any thoughts about what may have happened, and or what I may do to prevent it in the future would be more than welcome. It was a bit of a stressful saga. Lol.
Like I said, this might be an issue with my water parameters, but even today that bowl of water with Purigen is reading 4.15 on pH meter. I mean, the pH drop i feel was almost instant after I turned the filter back on after adding the Purigen. I mean, I know several on here don't think that highly of purigen, but I'd still like to use it, but also don't want to kill my cute little shrimps and snails with highly acidic water either. Fortunately it appears most survived the episode (the T Zebras are hiding a lot today) Even today, the water is a little more acidic that it was before when it was pretty stable. If anything I'd like to learn about what happened as i am curious. Thoughts?
Thanks in advance!
Ryan