can a HOB filter lower PH?

redchigh

I'm curious, because the other day I turned the filter off for maintenance...


Today, I was looking at the aquarium... and everything was perfect. The fish were happy, snails (mts pond and ramshorn) were out and doing their thing, and tons of new plant growth since yesterday.
I tested the water, and everything was PERFECT. Even the PH was 7.5 with a KH of about 6.

The KH and PH have NEVER been that high! IT's a dream come true since I've been TRYING to make them go up for weeks and weeks. (months probably.)

Oddly, the filter was off. (Apparently I forgot toplug it in)

So, I'm pretty sure the bacteria is probably dead... Is it possible the filter was responsible for the stubbornly low ph?

Also... if the ammonia stays 0... can I just remove the filter altogether? Or only use it periodically to clear the water when neccesary?

Thanks.

Angel079

I don't see how any filter would be upping or lowering your KH/pH UNLESS you have anything fancy in there like these specialized pads?? But if you just got normal sponged normal bio wheels that won't influence it.

Its a new set up ain't it? Some of mine took over 2 month to balance out and then have a steady pH/KH.

You can run a tank w/out filter Oldfishlady does all her's that way. I have my 3g with plants and MTS only running that way too but not the bigger tanks with stock.

Redknee

What filtering medias do you have in the filter?
I would not turn the filter of, maybe now the ammonia is 0 since the filter worked BUT are you sure you can keep it to 0 without the filter?
Keeping the water pristine with no filter is not as easy as it sounds, i do not doubt oldfishlady manages it BUT i do doubt it's as easy as it might sound. You need to know what you are doing or failure is just around the corner. Without the bacteria doing it's job you might encounter problems. It all depends on your plants and stock.

redchigh

the tanks been running for.. hmm. about 5-6 months now. perhaps longer.

There's no no biowheel, it's one of those internal submersable filters, but it's really a HOB. Just not labelled as such.

I'll monitor the ammonia.. it's heavily planted so ammonia shouldn't spike. It's also a 10G... so it might be able to manage.
Stock is a bunch of guppies (about 10 adults, at least 20 fry.) and a bunch of snails (3 pond, 5-6 small ramshorn, unknown flocks of MTS. Possibly 2 dozen, but they're tiny. The largest snail in the tank is a pond snail and it's ALMOST the size of a dime when it's stretched out of its shell.)

Most of the snails will be divided into my other two tanks, but they're uninhabitable right now.
(one has green terrors and one is still... erm. processing. Not quite cycling since it's a filterless 5G. Just letting the soil stabilise.)

Maybe I need to clean the filter... if it's full of gunk maybe that could lower the Ph...*shrug*

Oldfishlady

I can go without filter because of massive active growing plants (90-95% plants).....if it was not for the plants my tanks would crash without the filter......the media (nitrifying bacteria) usually will die off within 4-6 hours without oxygen, they need their oxygen to thrive and colonize........

IMO something else is causing the pH swings, do you have soil or peatmoss substrate, lots of driftwood...after your tap water or source water degases for 24 hours what is its pH?

Knowing your KH and GH will help too.....