Need to start over-advice please?

I've been struggling with the KH and pH of my tank for weeks and I think I need to "start over," as it is I've lost eight guppies and countless neocaridinas and I simply am at my wit's end. I have shared several posts here and in other forums and ultimately no one has come up with a plausible explanation so I want to start fresh. Does anyone have tips on how to "re-cycle" a tank and how to keep existing fish, shrimp, and snails alive through the process? 20 gallon tank. Thank you...

 

I always respond to problems in my tank with being aggressive with partial water changes. I would try to figure out why I'm losing fish, otherwise you could go through a lot of time and effort and have the same thing happen.

What are your test readings? How often do you perform partial water changes?

 

I have been doing aggressive 40-50% water changes for the past several days. Nitrites 0, Nitrates 10, no ammonia, GH at least 300, KH 0, pH below 6. Inert substrate. Sponge filter. 78 degrees. One bubbler. Lots of live plants. No driftwood. Wonder shell and rocks. Endlers, guppies, neocaridina, and rabbit and mystery snails. 20 gallon tank. Moved from a 10 gallon. Once the cycling process started the pH dropped and never came back up- I did mistakenly have fluval stratum in the 10 gal but replaced almost 100% with Carib Sea Eco Complete. Help!!!

 

Have you tested the PH of the water you use to fill your tank?

This could be a good point to start with. If yhe water you put in is too acidic to start with, you may have to look at a different option. Tap, bottle, spring....

Do you use conditioner every water change?

Corral/Crushed corral would help bringing it up a bit. PH of 6 is much to low which im assuming is where most of your issue is.

Also, how high is your bubbler set up? When they blow too much air, is agitates the water too much and can affect your PH

Hope this helps

 

Have you tested the PH of the water you use to fill your tank?

This could be a good point to start with. If yhe water you put in is too acidic to start with, you may have to look at a different option. Tap, bottle, spring....

Do you use conditioner every water change?

Corral/Crushed corral would help bringing it up a bit. PH of 6 is much to low which im assuming is where most of your issue is.

Also, how high is your bubbler set up? When they blow too much air, is agitates the water too much and can affect your PH

Hope this helps

Here is a pic-i tested the kh/ph of tap water today (with strip-i will test again with liquid tomorrow) and kh is zip too--but when i first set everything up i am pretty sure kh was higher and the tap now is def higher pH like almost 7...

 

Here is a pic-i tested the kh/ph of tap water today (with strip-i will test again with liquid tomorrow) and kh is zip too--but when i first set everything up i am pretty sure kh was higher and the tap now is def higher pH like almost 7...

You can use baking soda to raise the ph. You can find the amount you need to add online, since you only want to raise it in slow increments. This is only a temporary fix however but it may reduce fish loss and BB and plants dying, as a ph of below 6 can result in all 3.
Just to clarify, your tap water is around ph 7, and after adding it to your tank, it drops. About how long does this take to happen? When you do a water change and test the pH right after, it is closer to 7?

 

Crushed coral has been the only way I could get my kh/gh up and stable. My tap is 8.4 ph and in the tanks it was at 6.2-6.4, with 0 kh/gh. I lost a lot of shrimp trying to figure things out, and a few fish I’m sure.
Don’t mess with co2 either, IMO. It’ll throw everything out of whack again.

 

You can use baking soda to raise the ph. You can find the amount you need to add online, since you only want to raise it in slow increments. This is only a temporary fix however but it may reduce fish loss and BB and plants dying, as a ph of below 6 can result in all 3.
Just to clarify, your tap water is around ph 7, and after adding it to your tank, it drops. About how long does this take to happen? When you do a water change and test the pH right after, it is closer to 7?

For about an hour then it plummets

 

Get some crushed coral. Start with about 1/2 cup in a media bag, rinse it off and put it in your filter. If there isn't enough room in your filter hang it where water is running over it. This isn't going to raise the PH instantly so just keep checking it over the next few days. If after 3 days your PH isn't up to at least 7 add a bit more CC to the media bag. Again rinse it first. You want to get the coral dust off of it or it will spike your PH too quickly.

Once you get your PH up and stable at no less than 7 I feel sure a lot of the problems you are seeing will start getting better. There is no need to start over at this point.

 

So I am getting crushed coral. I CANNOT figure out why the KH plummets... I did some amateurish sleuthing this morning and look--I dis figure out that pH "Corrector" tabs actually LOWER the pH/KH...!!!

 

Looks like you may have gotten to the bottom of why your PH is crashing. When it comes to stabilizing PH I always recommend crushed coral. In my humble opinion it is the most natural way to get where you need to be. Other things sold to adjust numbers often do more than it is designed to do. It changes what we want to change but we are left to wonder what else is it doing. Those products are much like some medications. They may help the problem but what are the side effects.

Hopefully you will be able to remove most of the tabs you added and can get a stable PH. As I said, if you can get it up to and hold it at least 7 a lot of your problems may be solved.