So I've got a 14g IM nuvo peninsula. Recently mt cycle completed, and the only thing alive in the tank is the bacteria, and a light start to diatoms so no livestock are in any danger.
But today I placed an order for my first livestock. Two clowns and couple snails to get things started. I did a water change to normalize a small mistake I made in salinity and to flush out nitrates before they get here, did a quick round of of tests today one day after that change (about 50% wc)
And then I noticed it. My Ph dropped pretty hard. Before the change it was sitting pretty well around 8. Tested the water I was going to put in before the WC and that batch of water was a solid 8.2
Now it's between 7.4 and 7.6, somewhere in there. What happened? Is this normal? The only thing I can think of is maybe because we're having a bit of a heatwave this week, I've got my office windows closed and my floor unit AC on so I can work comfortably through the day, and so the water temp doesn't shoot up (nothing in the tank as I said, but It's nice to know I can control the room enough that it won't be a problem when I add them)
Could having the windows closed for a few days or even 24 hours cause such a drop? Can I invest in a small reactor setup to balance it out when it's too hot to have windows open with a fan bringing in outside air?
Sorry for the lengthy post, just very confused and I can't find any solutions that aren't for large scale tanks costing a few hundred bucks in equiptment.
But today I placed an order for my first livestock. Two clowns and couple snails to get things started. I did a water change to normalize a small mistake I made in salinity and to flush out nitrates before they get here, did a quick round of of tests today one day after that change (about 50% wc)
And then I noticed it. My Ph dropped pretty hard. Before the change it was sitting pretty well around 8. Tested the water I was going to put in before the WC and that batch of water was a solid 8.2
Now it's between 7.4 and 7.6, somewhere in there. What happened? Is this normal? The only thing I can think of is maybe because we're having a bit of a heatwave this week, I've got my office windows closed and my floor unit AC on so I can work comfortably through the day, and so the water temp doesn't shoot up (nothing in the tank as I said, but It's nice to know I can control the room enough that it won't be a problem when I add them)
Could having the windows closed for a few days or even 24 hours cause such a drop? Can I invest in a small reactor setup to balance it out when it's too hot to have windows open with a fan bringing in outside air?
Sorry for the lengthy post, just very confused and I can't find any solutions that aren't for large scale tanks costing a few hundred bucks in equiptment.