pH drop

[mmoreno24]

My pH level in my 55-gallon tank has been at 6.0 for weeks now. I have tried all types of pH increasing products but nothing seems to work. I even used one that guaranteed that it would get the pH to 7.0 and still there is no increase whatsoever. Can somebody please give me an idea of a) what's going on and b) what else can i do to raise the pH?
Oh, also, the ammonia levels are pretty high. The products I'm using for that started to work, but when I tested today, it had gone back up a bit. Could the two be related? Nitrites are at 0 and nitrates are at about 60.
Thank you!

[AngelMom]

What is the alkalinity (KH) reading? If it's too low, you cannot raise the pH ... btw, commercial pH adjuster are really dangerous if you don't under stand the relationship between the KH, pH, and CO2. Not to mention they create an icky chemical soup the fish have to swim in.

Ammonia is another issue though ... and most likely due to the tank being way overstocked and under filtered. The only way to help that will be to get a larger tank or remove some of the fish.

[mmoreno24]

After using a test strip I found the Alkalinity to be at 0.

how do I raise the alkalinity to an appropriate level? what is this level?

[AngelMom]

Hopefully your test strip is good (they are notoriously unreliable), and assuming it is, zero is really bad. Is the pH stable (ie, you get the same reading when taking the measurement at different times during the day)? Usually when the alkalinity drops too low (below about 35 or 40 ppm) the pH becomes unstable and can "crash" creating a shock situation which can seriously stress out or even kill the fish.

One option is to use a product like Kent's "pH Stable" to raise the alkalinity. I prefer this as there is very little guesswork using their formula. Another option is to add baking soda to the water. The issue there is that you need to play chemist and figure out exactly how much to add to the tank and you must add it in tiny doses over a period of days to avoid raising the alkalinity too fast.

As the alkalinity goes up, the pH will rise also. There is a link in my signature on the pH/KH/CO2 relationship that goes into some of the mechanics involved in the process.

Also, if it's feasible, liquid tests should be used to determine the exact KH values (test strips are really only good for a qualitative test and then only after they have been "calibrated" to a liquid test kit) because you don't want to change the KH/pH too fast ... to do so could harm the fish.

[mmoreno24]

Thank you. I will check out the "pH stable" stuff. I have a liquid test kit but it only tests pH, high range pH, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite.

The pH has consistently been "Yellow" which on the chart is 6.0. I've tested multiple times a day over the past two weeks. I had 2 albino cory cats die a week or two ago. They were the smaller of the 4 that I had, the other 2 big ones are alive and fine. I also had what appeared to be Popeye on 3 of my silver dollar tetras. They had a white (fuzzy looking like a q-tip head) circle over there eyes that would appear then come off. I treated this with Macryn-Two and it seemed to work great cause it's no longer there. Could these happenings be related to the pH level or lack of alkalinity?

[AngelMom]

While not knowing for sure when you are testing, I do think it's likely that your pH is fluctuating too much between lights-on and lights-off periods (some drop is normal as the CO2 is increased during the lights-off periods, but a zero KH could cause it to drop drastically) and that the fish are getting too stressed out which would lead to them being more susceptible to disease and stress related illnesses.