PH For Comet Gold Fish

[Deepblu505]

I have a 125 Gal pond that I use in a Aquaponics System with about 15 gold fish in it as the source of nutrients for the veggies in my grow beds. The grow bed will act as a biological filter taking the nutrient from the pond water pumped through them, don't have the plants in yet but I have a bio filter in the pond. I have had the system running a couple of weeks now and did a water check the other day and my PH was in the high range (7.8 part /million). I have read that a PH of 7.4 is optimal . So my question is this: Is my PH to high , and if so what should I be doing about it? I want to use safe methods in the system because I want to be able to eat the veggies without unwanted chemicals in them.
Any and all help and advice welcome.

 

[Ghostriderphoto]

Your ph should be fine. If it was in the 6's or the 8's the some peat/driftwood ( lowers ph) or crushed coral/oyster shell(raises ph) could be used. Over a couple weeks you will most likely notice a drop in your ph anyways... The beneficial bacteria use the buffers in the water to convert nitrite to nitrate which lowers the ph. As your ph lowers due to this process you will need to either add buffers or due partial water changes to maintain your ph. If a system has a large bio load then this change will be more obvious.

 

[Deepblu505]

Your ph should be fine. If it was in the 6's or the 8's the some peat/driftwood ( lowers ph) or crushed coral/oyster shell(raises ph) could be used. Over a couple weeks you will most likely notice a drop in your ph anyways... The beneficial bacteria use the buffers in the water to convert nitrite to nitrate which lowers the ph. As your ph lowers due to this process you will need to either add buffers or due partial water changes to maintain your ph. If a system has a large bio load then this change will be more obvious.

Thanks that is what I thought, will be watching it, I have not added the gravel to my grow beds yet, once I do and get the plants started , I expect it to change more. Good to know about the peat/driftwood, and the crushed coral and oyster shells.