Dropping PH

[urbanfarmer]

i have 100gal gb, first time i added a dozen egg shells dried and crushed, and a dozen clam shells i smashed up.. ph went from 6.4 up to high 6's and stayed there.. i added another dozen clam shells after a month or two.. ph has been sitting in the low 7's, usually 7.2
that's with 150gal ft, 45 yellow perch, a few dozen rosy reds, and a couple dozen crayfish

Good to know. Thank you

[wh33t]

Am I correct in understanding that "nitrites" are what drops your PH very quickly? It seems like anytime I test for nitrite and actually read more than zero my PH has already fallen a few points.

[urbanfarmer]

Am I correct in understanding that "nitrites" are what drops your PH very quickly? It seems like anytime I test for nitrite and actually read more than zero my PH has already fallen a few points.

Generally, no.

It is possible, however, but very, VERY, unlikely. Let's not explore this any further.

An enormous amount of nitrification can cause a significant pH change. Am I correct in assuming you are still pouring ammonium in the system?

If not, it could be all the urine (ammonium) you put in initially still working its way through the cycle. Remember, your kit only reads up to 8 ppm ammonia/um. If it was 800 ppm or 8 ppm, it wouldn't know the difference. Just give it time. The egg shells will help.

[wh33t]

Am I correct in understanding that "nitrites" are what drops your PH very quickly? It seems like anytime I test for nitrite and actually read more than zero my PH has already fallen a few points.

Generally, no.

It is possible, however, but very, VERY, unlikely. Let's not explore this any further.

An enormous amount of nitrification can cause a significant pH change. Am I correct in assuming you are still pouring ammonium in the system?

If not, it could be all the urine you put in. Remember, your kit only reads up to 8 ppm ammonia/um. If it was 800 ppm or 8 ppm, it wouldn't know the difference. Just give it time. The egg shells will help.

The very first time I added urine into the system of course the whole system went haywire. The ammonia levels dropped back to 0ppm and then the nitrites went sky high and then eventually so did the nitrates. All was good for a day or two, but now my nitrates are dropping off again and my fish still aren't producing the waste I require them too! I need more fish but they are still mysteriously dying (and yet I have about 12 that seem to be fine?!).

So I peed in it again, the ammonia levels rose to about 2ppm and now I have nitrites in there showing on the test tube. The PH moved from 6.6 to 6.2 over night which is probably acceptable but once again I have noticed that the Ph moved down when the nitrites moved up! I thought I was witnessing some kind of pattern.

[urbanfarmer]

Am I correct in understanding that "nitrites" are what drops your PH very quickly? It seems like anytime I test for nitrite and actually read more than zero my PH has already fallen a few points.

Generally, no.

It is possible, however, but very, VERY, unlikely. Let's not explore this any further.

An enormous amount of nitrification can cause a significant pH change. Am I correct in assuming you are still pouring ammonium in the system?

If not, it could be all the urine you put in. Remember, your kit only reads up to 8 ppm ammonia/um. If it was 800 ppm or 8 ppm, it wouldn't know the difference. Just give it time. The egg shells will help.

The very first time I added urine into the system of course the whole system went haywire. The ammonia levels dropped back to 0ppm and then the nitrites went sky high and then eventually so did the nitrates. All was good for a day or two, but now my nitrates are dropping off again and my fish still aren't producing the waste I require them too! I need more fish but they are still mysteriously dying (and yet I have about 12 that seem to be fine?!).

So I peed in it again, the ammonia levels rose to about 2ppm and now I have nitrites in there showing on the test tube. The PH moved from 6.6 to 6.2 over night which is probably acceptable but once again I have noticed that the Ph moved down when the nitrites moved up! I thought I was witnessing some kind of pattern.

The pH will go up as the bacteria consume the ammonia and nitrite. You saw your nitrate hit 0? Are the plants doing poorly? I think it's time for a picture!

[wh33t]

Am I correct in understanding that "nitrites" are what drops your PH very quickly? It seems like anytime I test for nitrite and actually read more than zero my PH has already fallen a few points.

Generally, no.

It is possible, however, but very, VERY, unlikely. Let's not explore this any further.

An enormous amount of nitrification can cause a significant pH change. Am I correct in assuming you are still pouring ammonium in the system?

If not, it could be all the urine you put in. Remember, your kit only reads up to 8 ppm ammonia/um. If it was 800 ppm or 8 ppm, it wouldn't know the difference. Just give it time. The egg shells will help.

The very first time I added urine into the system of course the whole system went haywire. The ammonia levels dropped back to 0ppm and then the nitrites went sky high and then eventually so did the nitrates. All was good for a day or two, but now my nitrates are dropping off again and my fish still aren't producing the waste I require them too! I need more fish but they are still mysteriously dying (and yet I have about 12 that seem to be fine?!).

So I peed in it again, the ammonia levels rose to about 2ppm and now I have nitrites in there showing on the test tube. The PH moved from 6.6 to 6.2 over night which is probably acceptable but once again I have noticed that the Ph moved down when the nitrites moved up! I thought I was witnessing some kind of pattern.

The pH will go up as the bacteria consume the ammonia and nitrite. You saw your nitrate hit 0? Are the plants doing poorly? I think it's time for a picture!

No, they didn't hit zero, they were on there way to zero though! It was orange on the meter, which is around 40ppm I believe.

[urbanfarmer]

I haven't been able to concentrate because I have lectures and all kinds of sounds going in the background while doing my homework. I'm focusing on like 10 things at the same time, but I have a break now; so, excuse my poor diagnosis process previously... I should have asked:

How old is your system? A few weeks from the sounds of it!

Are you in the process of cycling your system? If so, you need to let it just do its thing. Don't add fish yet, but you can definitely add plants.

What's your water temperature like? This could be an issue, but I assume it's not very cold?

How's your dissolved oxygen? If you don't know, what are you doing for aeration?

[wh33t]

I haven't been able to concentrate because I have lectures and all kinds of sounds going in the background while doing my homework. I'm focusing on like 10 things at the same time, but I have a break now; so, excuse my poor diagnosis process previously... I should have asked:

How old is your system? A few weeks from the sounds of it!

Are you in the process of cycling your system? If so, you need to let it just do its thing. Don't add fish yet, but you can definitely add plants.

What's your water temperature like? This could be an issue, but I assume it's not very cold?

How's your dissolved oxygen? If you don't know, what are you doing for aeration?

The system is just a few weeks Tomorrow it will be 3 weeks.

I suppose the system is still cycling but there is already enough bacteria to complete the nitrogen cycle as the filter I use on my pond is actually my old hydroton filled grow bed. It uses flood and drain, drains every 5 minutes or so.

Temperature varies between 20c and 22c.

For Aeration I have a 1600gph pump that is split three ways. One tap goes to the bio-filter f&d bed as previously mentioned. One goes to the flood and drain table and the last one goes to a home made venturi that blasts so much air into the water you can't even see through the air-like curtain it creates.

So I presume for Aeration I'm doing quite well.

Thanks so much to everyone as well for taking all the time to communicate with me

[lindajamison76]

Well, great work! You have helped me to improve my knowledge about this field. Thank you so much for sharing.



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[urbanfarmer]

Well, great work! You have helped me to improve my knowledge about this field. Thank you so much for sharing.



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Nice to have you with us lindajamison76 Welcome to the addiction!