best way to bring up p.h
- Thread starter JCS11236
- Start date
yes
it very strangs--- yesterday morning it was 7.8 and he changed 4 gallons--and lin in the after noon it was the same---he bought a clown fish and put him in the tank
he seem to be doing good last night but he says this morning it was not really swimming much--do u think it has to do with the ph being low?
he accumated him very slow --for like 2 three hours
well do u think it has to do with his tank jus completin its cycle period?
it very strangs--- yesterday morning it was 7.8 and he changed 4 gallons--and lin in the after noon it was the same---he bought a clown fish and put him in the tank
he seem to be doing good last night but he says this morning it was not really swimming much--do u think it has to do with the ph being low?
he accumated him very slow --for like 2 three hours
well do u think it has to do with his tank jus completin its cycle period?
Ya I would definitly get the ph up a.s.a.p.,as pro-longed exposure to that low PH will have an effect on the fishes health for sure; but do it slowly so you don't shock the system. A pH of 8.0 to 8.3 and an alkalinity of 2.9 to 4.0 meq/L (8 to 11 dKH) is recommended for reef type aquariums (fish only marine aquariums should maintain 3.5 to 5.5 meq/L or 10 to 14 dKH) and calcium level should be maintained between 400 and 450 ppm.
I use Kent - Superbuffer dKH; it say's you can just add it into the tank and it will not flake on to your coral....ya not true! I tried it once and everything in the tank shrivled up within seconds and my mushrooms started spewing there insides out. Luckely everything returned to normal the next day, now I only mix it in a bucket of new SW before adding into the tank.
I use Kent - Superbuffer dKH; it say's you can just add it into the tank and it will not flake on to your coral....ya not true! I tried it once and everything in the tank shrivled up within seconds and my mushrooms started spewing there insides out. Luckely everything returned to normal the next day, now I only mix it in a bucket of new SW before adding into the tank.
Yes, but if all the tank water is low on kH you're probably not adding enough to make a difference, and particularly a long term difference as it will all be chewed out.
What we don't know here is the kH, and frankly without it we're purely guessing. However it's a fair bet that it's all been used up and so increasing organics in the water are starting to drive down pH. These organics are humic acids and so, that won't skim out very easily, nor will they enter the nitrogen cycle very quickly either. They are somewhat harmless in effect to fish, but they do affect water chemistry.
Fixes for this are water changes with substrate hoovering (to sort out organic loads in the tank), and buffering. I use Kent super buffer and it's alright, I dissolve it into my topup water, maybe a teaspoon into a litre of water.
There might be something else happening, but without knowing the setup, kH, water changes and so on this is where I would start. Does the house have full air con, are the windows ever open?
Note that a pH of 8 or even 8.2 is low by seawter changes, and the range 8.2 to 8.6 is one to shoot for. You won't get your pH up that high buffering alk, you'll need to drip kalk to do that. You'll find at the very low pH's this tank has, you're just waiting for the slime algae attack from hell, and it will be fast too. Once you get your pH up higher you'll almost certainly lose your slime algae and you'll probably inhibit hair algae grwoth too.
Crush coral , if it's largely calcite will NOT dissolve in water with a pH greater than 7.2 (I think) so won't help the pH, and aragonite based coral sand will only do so much at these higher pH's
What we don't know here is the kH, and frankly without it we're purely guessing. However it's a fair bet that it's all been used up and so increasing organics in the water are starting to drive down pH. These organics are humic acids and so, that won't skim out very easily, nor will they enter the nitrogen cycle very quickly either. They are somewhat harmless in effect to fish, but they do affect water chemistry.
Fixes for this are water changes with substrate hoovering (to sort out organic loads in the tank), and buffering. I use Kent super buffer and it's alright, I dissolve it into my topup water, maybe a teaspoon into a litre of water.
There might be something else happening, but without knowing the setup, kH, water changes and so on this is where I would start. Does the house have full air con, are the windows ever open?
Note that a pH of 8 or even 8.2 is low by seawter changes, and the range 8.2 to 8.6 is one to shoot for. You won't get your pH up that high buffering alk, you'll need to drip kalk to do that. You'll find at the very low pH's this tank has, you're just waiting for the slime algae attack from hell, and it will be fast too. Once you get your pH up higher you'll almost certainly lose your slime algae and you'll probably inhibit hair algae grwoth too.
Crush coral , if it's largely calcite will NOT dissolve in water with a pH greater than 7.2 (I think) so won't help the pH, and aragonite based coral sand will only do so much at these higher pH's