ADA Amazonia and low KH

[Bahamuts]

After 2 months of struggling to get my third tank stable I am running out of ideas.

I set up the new fluval edge 46l around new year with ADA Amazonia and certain plants.

After the initial ammonia spike and full cycle I tested the water and had it tested in the shop and it was all clear
I had neon tetras in there for a few days and I lost all 10 due to a PH drop to a PH of 4.

I did a big waterchange and had everything retested after a week. PH was 6.4 and everything else was clear so I put a few new neons in... After a day I lost 2 and the rest seem to be getting ick (due to stress I assume even though they don't show signs of it untill the point of them falling over)

My water is supersoft and my KH is 0,5. Can this active substrate be struggling to keep a stable PH due to my extremely low KH?

My plants aren't doing as expected either. (I am atm not injectkng co2 yet but using liquid carbon while i wait for my regulator to arrive.)

Crypts starting to show melting signs , hardly any growth, complete opposite of my two other tanks...

Has anyone ever used this substrate with such low KH? Can it be fluctuating ph? Will this stabilise when I inject co2 as it will have to work less hard to lower it?

I am at the point where I am scared to put anything in. Even considering stripping it and replacing substrate when I build my co2 injection kit.

any advice appreciated

 

[Radik]

I have 0 KH my PH is 5.85 at the moment with injecting Co2.. it is pretty difficult to inject enough Co2 at 0KH. I have some boraras and shrimp and otos and they are active and alive.

You can't get PH lower than 5 in the aquarium you must have pour acid to do so first.

Your neons died not from the low PH but something else like Osmotic shock. PH shock is myth. If your water is soft and you bought them from somebody who had hard water his TDS is high = osmotic shock. Google about it I have no time to go to details.

Also could be you still had some nitrites or ammonia. Amazonia takes time to cycle. Also if your PH was under 6.4 virtually it will never cycle as Nitrobacter does not work below PH 6.4 only way out is to let plants to consume nutrients or do large frequent water changes.

 

[Bahamuts]

Thanks for the reply.

There was no nitrites or ammonia present, tank cycled for a full 6 weeks with an initial spike of 6ppm 😛 The PH on "doomsday" was a substantial drop after I did a waterchange, the neons had been in there for just under a week the first time.

The fish came from the local shop around the corner, they have extremely soft water as well.

I guess my main question would be if someone is using on of these active substrates succesfully with extremely low KH.


ps. doesn't PH under 6 turn into ammonia, or is that one of those other myths? 🙂

 

[Antipofish]

Hi, I dont know how experienced you are or what routines you are using for adding fish, so will ask anyway. You are aclimatising them properly ? IE floating the bag to equalise temperature, then slowly adding tank water (I would suggest 10% volume of the fish bag water every 5 minutes until you have added 200% or more since your pH is probably quite different to your LFS). Other stuff, you are adding dechlorinator before adding new water after a water change ? Trying to balance the temp of the new water ? Its true amazonia leaches ammonia, and in a 46L tank it could be more noticable. Anyway, hope these thoughts help a little. I am sure others will have other things to consider.

 

[Radik]

Yes as I described my KH is 0 and I have been adding RO water to it and I never got PH below 6.4 with RO water or below 5.5 with Co2. I am telling you PH shock is a myth look for other cause.

 

[Bahamuts]

Yes antipofish, they were well aclimatised before going in.

@Radik: ok thx, it wasn't clear from your post you were using this substrate too. But that gives me some confidence to not give up on this substrate just yet. The remaining neons are fine for now and PH seems stable on the tests I did. We'll just wait and see how it progresses and how it responds to co2 injection.

 

[Antipofish]

how many plants do you have in there ? the more the better 🙂