Question about raising ph

[skiweeangel]

Have finally obtained crystal clear water in all of my tanks all nematodes are gone! I was over feeding. Simple.

My question is this, is there any formula to follow when adding crushed coral to slowly raise a tanks ph? I have recently added a piece of driftwood to my sons 55gal and the ph seems to have slipped under 6. I would like to slowly raise it by adding some crushed coral but I don't want it to go up too quickly or too slowly. Is it just add a little and keep an eye on it?

 

[skiweeangel]

Ok, lets try this. Has anyone done this in the past or currently doing it?

 

[Cynic]

I've been advised on this very process recently

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/please-help-ph-dropping-192149.html

IMO, yes, you are overstocked, especially your bottom dwellers. You have 59 ~2 inch fish in less than 40 gallons of water.

Crushed coral is a trial and error thing. Start with a small amount, a couple tablespoons, and see what happens over the next 36 hours. If your pH is still low then add another tablespoon or two and check again in 36 hours. If you need to take some out then remove a pinch or two and check again in 36 hours. Repeat until it holds at your target pH. You will need to keep an eye on things though and with that load of fish I would probably up your PWC schedule to at least 30% twice a week but it may take two 50% PWCs a week to get it under control.

Also consider moving out some of the fish to other tanks so the load on this tank is relaxed a bit.

^JMO. Someone else may have a better idea.

 

[skiweeangel]

thanks so much!

 

[Wy Renegade]

Hhhmmm . . . can't really say that I see crushed coral breaking down that quickly myself, although I'm not real familiar with it in freshwater. I know that I've added crushed oyster shell to cichlid tanks in the past (mixed a large quantity in with the gravel substrate) and it broke down slowly enough that it maintained the aquarium pH for well over a year without raising it overly high. Curious to see what some others may have to say on this one.

 

[skiweeangel]

thank you.