[CamryDS]

Hello All,

just wanted to say hi -- I've joined this forum because I have a few questions that need to be answered.

I current have a 90 gallon tank that's been stocked for about 7 months (started in february) and i'm having problems with PH.

Alittle while ago, the tank had no problems -- but today it had a bad bad smell (probably some type of issue with cleaning) and ph was under 6.0!! I was so scared, I did an immediate water change and gravel vacuum and also I cleaned out the fluval 405 cannister filter.

I changed 2/4 foam pads, rinsed the media in my tank water (inside a bucket) and completey cleaned out the inside of my filter.

I noticed a lot of red gunk in the cannister and it was deep deep red. kinda like blood
I did a ph test of my tapwater, and found that the water is at least 8.0+, for a while my water was fine (between 7.4-7.6).

I always did weekly water changes(25%-30%) & gravel vacuum's, and I've done 4 water changes within the last 4 days -- including the largest one today (about 70% worth) I noticed when I came home and all my fish were at the botttom not swimming, and there was like acid like white burns on my rasboras' tail. once I changed out the water, the fish became more lively -- I was contemplating about using a ph buffer, but I think I've seen poeple have bad experiences, and the last thing I need is a wipe.

I don't know exactly what I've been doing wrong.

Ammonia = 0
Nitrates = 0
Nitrites = ranges between 10-20ppm

I have a planted tank and I have close to sand gravel (fine gravel).
I also have 2 ceramic decorations and the plants are amazon swords (grew from 3 to 10 in 4 months).

I'm just listing what I may have and what might cause problems (ceramic decorations).

[dramaqueen]

Hello and welcome to FishForum.

[Twistersmom]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Sorry to hear you are having these problems! I am not sure what would be causing your ph to drop.
Was the sand gravel sold for aquarium use? Where the decorations sold for aquariums? Anything else in the tank, such as rocks?
Do you know the gh of your tap water?

[CamryDS]

Originally Posted by Twistersmom

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Sorry to hear you are having these problems! I am not sure what would be causing your ph to drop.
Was the sand gravel sold for aquarium use? Where the decorations sold for aquariums? Anything else in the tank, such as rocks?
Do you know the gh of your tap water?

Thanks for the welcome guys,

no idea what gh for tapwater is -- all I did was just the water test from the api master kit and it tells me that right out of the tap it's about 8.0 and in my tank mixing up it was still under 6.

as far as the current situation, the gravel came from a LFS, so it was made for aquariums... the decorations came from a LFS as well

I can show you pictures:
Antiquities
this is where I got my decorations from.

I have a log that's made out of resin for aquarium use, other than that it's all natural

I guess, I'm wondering what's causing the red gunk, since there's red gunk in the filter when I pulled it out -- very think gunk.

one thing I forgot to mention is that, at one point I did use something called copper power (as medication) to kill off some parasites. that been flushed out. I believe I've used about 5 cap fulls -- 7ml per capfull, so that equates about 1.1 ounces? just around that amount. it did get rid of all the parasites, but I think that's when the red stuff started to appear -- I heard it was cyanobacteria but i'm too noob to diagnose properly -- anyone else had this problem before?

[willow]

hello and welcome to you.
i hope you will be able to get all the help you need.

[aunt kymmie]

I'm chiming in a little late but welcome to the forum!

[MoneyMitch]

a little late to the welcome party myself lol, Welcome to the forum!!!

[JohnnyD44]

ditto!!! welcome!