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I have a slowly declining PH in my tank and I'm wondering why. It's a 55g community with plants, lots of fish, etc (look at my pics). It seems to be slowly dropping about 0.1 to 0.2 per week or so, starting out a month ago around 7.2 and now it seems to be below 7, almost 6.8. It's almost unnoticable, but I keep track of test results on a spreadsheet.
My municipal water PH is high - just tested 1/2 day old water sitting in a bucket in prep for a water change and the ph was off the scale using my API high PH test kit - which goes to 8.8. I've been using this water for my water changes (but not testing it prior to changes until now) which I do 10% every 2 to 3 days. My tank PH started out higher, I think it was closer to 8 after I filled it and let it run for a few days. At that time, I added Perfect PH 7.0 which didn't lower it to 7.0, but brought it down. But I've done a ton of changes since then (one 30%, and at least 10x10%) so that shouldn't matter.
So how can my PH be dropping if the water I keep adding is 2 points higher?
About 2-3 weeks ago I added 1 tsp API aquarium salt per gallon to the tank, and have been added 1tsp/gal to the new water during changes so it should be at that level system wide. Does salinity affect any of the API tests? Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, low/high PH?
My municipal water PH is high - just tested 1/2 day old water sitting in a bucket in prep for a water change and the ph was off the scale using my API high PH test kit - which goes to 8.8. I've been using this water for my water changes (but not testing it prior to changes until now) which I do 10% every 2 to 3 days. My tank PH started out higher, I think it was closer to 8 after I filled it and let it run for a few days. At that time, I added Perfect PH 7.0 which didn't lower it to 7.0, but brought it down. But I've done a ton of changes since then (one 30%, and at least 10x10%) so that shouldn't matter.
So how can my PH be dropping if the water I keep adding is 2 points higher?
About 2-3 weeks ago I added 1 tsp API aquarium salt per gallon to the tank, and have been added 1tsp/gal to the new water during changes so it should be at that level system wide. Does salinity affect any of the API tests? Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, low/high PH?