Products to adjust pH

[larochem595]

Hi Everyone,

I am somewhat new to having fish and never had a planted tank before. I have been using Proper pH 7.5 in my tank.
According to the manufacturers booklet, this product isn't safe for planted tanks and states that it will "stunt plant growth."
Does anyone have any experience with this? Does it really make that big of a difference?
Are there buffers that won't be harmful to my plants?

Thanks!!
Michelle

 

[trennamw]

There are better choices.

Why are you using the proper pH? Do you know your KH and GH?


Sent from my iPhone with three hands tied behind my back.

 

[Cthulhu]

What is your tap water's pH and KH? What is the pH and KH that you want? Why do you want to have this pH and KH?

 

[larochem595]

Right now, the pH in my tank is good so I'm not looking to adjust anything just yet.
I'm aiming for a pH of around 7.5. I'm relatively new to owning an aquarium and trying to learn.

Our tap water tends to be on the acidic side, with a pH of around 6.5. KH is around 60 ppm and GH around 200 ppm.

 

[Cthulhu]

Don't try to change your pH unless you absolutely need to. Things will be much easier if you just use your tap water as it is. A pH af 6.5 of excellent, I would love to have that.

 

[BBradbury]

Tank Water Chemistry

Hi Everyone,

I am somewhat new to having fish and never had a planted tank before. I have been using Proper pH 7.5 in my tank.
According to the manufacturers booklet, this product isn't safe for planted tanks and states that it will "stunt plant growth."
Does anyone have any experience with this? Does it really make that big of a difference?
Are there buffers that won't be harmful to my plants?

Thanks!!
Michelle

Hello Mich...

The chemicals that make up your tap water aren't important to keeping a healthy tank. You don't need to know the pH, hardness or any of this chemistry stuff. Most aquarium fish will adapt to the vast majority of public water supplies. You simply need to use a water treatment like Seachem's "Safe" according to instructions and change the tank water regularly to remove the dissolved fish wastes. That's it.

B

 

[trennamw]

Hello Mich...



The chemicals that make up your tap water aren't important to keeping a healthy tank. You don't need to know the pH, hardness or any of this chemistry stuff. Most aquarium fish will adapt to the vast majority of public water supplies. You simply need to use a water treatment like Seachem's "Safe" according to instructions and change the tank water regularly to remove the dissolved fish wastes. That's it.



B

I think that's a little extreme. I lost a lot of fish until I found out I was having extreme pH swings because my tap had almost 0 KH or GH.

Your KH might be a teensy bit low. If you're positive it's 60ppm then good ... But if your pH starts dropping during a week, you might get an API liquid KH test kit to be sure it's 3-4 "drops".

KH prevents pH swings, put most simply.

At any rate, it will do more harm than good to pursue a pH of 7.5.

If your KH is too low you can use a tiny bit of crushed coral, or an even tinier bit of Chiclid buffer. The coral is probably better since, if you need any KH at all, it's very little.

Buffering by increasing KH keeps pH from dropping. You may see pH come up a bit with a buffer, but that's indirect (adding more buffer won't in most cases continue to raise pH).


Sent from my iPhone with three hands tied behind my back.

 

[dalto]

Hello Mich...

The chemicals that make up your tap water aren't important to keeping a healthy tank. You don't need to know the pH, hardness or any of this chemistry stuff. Most aquarium fish will adapt to the vast majority of public water supplies. You simply need to use a water treatment like Seachem's "Safe" according to instructions and change the tank water regularly to remove the dissolved fish wastes. That's it.

B

If your KH is moderate to high and you keep certain fish that do well in a variety of waters than this may be true.

However, the OP has slightly acidic water with a low KH. With KH that low it would take very little to bring it crashing down.

Proper pH 7.5 is a phosphate buffer and probably a pretty good way to manage pH from 6.5->7.5. Using things like crushed coral or cichlid salts/buffers will work but be trickier to maintain, especially with water changes.

I don't know enough about plants but I suspect the problem is due to the use of phosphates in planted aquaria.

What fish are you keeping that you feel you need to raise the pH?

 

[Cthulhu]

I didn't know phosphate buffers existed and were used in aquarium, this is the first time I hear of it.

Anyway, as I said I would be very happy with the tap water you have. A KH of 60ppm should be enough to keep your pH stable if you do regular water changes, don't overpopulate and don't overfeed. Many people who keep acidic water have 2 dKH (36ppm) and their pH is stable.

But you may want to raise your GH. Do you know how much it is? It is generally recommended to have at least 5dGH (90ppm). Seachem Equilibrium is a good product to raise GH. GH is a measure of calcium and magnesium, and is not related to pH, but fish and plants need to have some amount of these minerals in the water to be healthy in the long term.

This is why it is important to know the parameters of your tap water, but once you know them you may not need to do tests ever again.

 

[evil Nick]

good thing I read this thread, I was using seachem equalizer in my tank to bring my PH to 7 from 7.6+ for mainly our angel fish.

I have quite a few plants. Ive used the product only 2 or 3 times so hopefully I havent done to much harm already to them. They all seemed to be growing fine.

didnt even know this was bad for plants, I would think the allpets employee would have known.

 

[dalto]

Why do your Angelfish need high pH Nick?

They originally came from soft acidic waters. I would expect that even the tank raised variety would do well in your neutral water.

 

[evil Nick]

Why do your Angelfish need high pH Nick?

They originally came from soft acidic waters. I would expect that even the tank raised variety would do well in your neutral water.

my tank is normally very high from the tap. I was using it to lower it to 7 to make it softer for them (well one now).

 

[dalto]

my tank is normally very high from the tap. I was using it to lower it to 7 to make it softer for them (well one now).

I see. I thought you were raising it from 7->7.6 but you are lowering from 7.6->7.0. That explains the confusion.

 

[evil Nick]

I see. I thought you were raising it from 7->7.6 but you are lowering from 7.6->7.0. That explains the confusion.

oh by all means, dont get cocky. "I'M" still very confused lol.

I might get their acid buffer but now Im stuck with this product.

I read the site and most people say the phosphates just contribute to algea growth but personally my algae is not bad by any means and with all my snails, pleco, flying fox, and molly its pretty kept in check.

Think its still safe to use?

I was going to buy their flourish excel off amazon, think they may counter act each other?

 

[dalto]

Using acid buffer to lower pH is not very fun. It erodes KH so if you don't dose enough or dose too slowly than the high KH will simply cause the pH to bounce back and you end up with pH swings. On the other hand, if you dose too much or too frequently than you will erode all the KH and the pH will crash completely.

I honestly don't know enough about plants to know how phosphate buffers impact them, hopefully someone else with more planted tank experience will chime in.

 

[evil Nick]

Using acid buffer to lower pH is not very fun. It erodes KH so if you don't dose enough or dose too slowly than the high KH will simply cause the pH to bounce back and you end up with pH swings. On the other hand, if you dose too much or too frequently than you will erode all the KH and the pH will crash completely.

I honestly don't know enough about plants to know how phosphate buffers impact them, hopefully someone else with more planted tank experience will chime in.

hmmm Ill use this here and there and see what happens. I noticed when I did start using it my fish seemed much more active and happy. Could be coincidence or its possibly just making them high.

Im pretty good with algea clean up. What I have now seems like the safer and easier bet.

 

[larochem595]

I didn't know phosphate buffers existed and were used in aquarium, this is the first time I hear of it.

Anyway, as I said I would be very happy with the tap water you have. A KH of 60ppm should be enough to keep your pH stable if you do regular water changes, don't overpopulate and don't overfeed. Many people who keep acidic water have 2 dKH (36ppm) and their pH is stable.

But you may want to raise your GH. Do you know how much it is? It is generally recommended to have at least 5dGH (90ppm). Seachem Equilibrium is a good product to raise GH. GH is a measure of calcium and magnesium, and is not related to pH, but fish and plants need to have some amount of these minerals in the water to be healthy in the long term.

This is why it is important to know the parameters of your tap water, but once you know them you may not need to do tests ever again.

Hi,
The GH in my tap water is rather high, I thinks it around 200 ppm. My platies are happy with it.

I recently wanted to start using water from a family member's house, which I discovered is on the soft side, compared to my tap water--Seachem Equilibrium sounds like just the product I was looking for to increase hardness a tad.

Thanks for this!
Michelle

 

[larochem595]

Hello Mich...

The chemicals that make up your tap water aren't important to keeping a healthy tank. You don't need to know the pH, hardness or any of this chemistry stuff. Most aquarium fish will adapt to the vast majority of public water supplies. You simply need to use a water treatment like Seachem's "Safe" according to instructions and change the tank water regularly to remove the dissolved fish wastes. That's it.

B

Hi!

Thank you very much for the reply!
I think that certain fish prefer certain water parameters. While they can certainly adjust to a certain pH and hardness, they usually do best within a particular range.
For example, cory catfish (which I would love to be able to own) wouldn't fare well if I were to use my unadjusted well water, which is sometimes extremely hard.
While most fish can adjust, I find they are typically happiest when they are kept within the recommended parameters.

Take care,
Thanks for the reply!
Michelle

 

[LiquidGardener]

Seachem acid buffer and alkaline buffer are NOT phosphate based to my knowledge. Use them together with the dosing chart to get the desired pH ( chart is based on RO water)

Their neutral buffer is phosphate based, avoid it.

Phosphate buffers will most likely just lead to algae which consume it meaning u lose your buffer as algae food.


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[trennamw]

If your KH is moderate to high and you keep certain fish that do well in a variety of waters than this may be true.

However, the OP has slightly acidic water with a low KH. With KH that low it would take very little to bring it crashing down.

Proper pH 7.5 is a phosphate buffer and probably a pretty good way to manage pH from 6.5->7.5. Using things like crushed coral or cichlid salts/buffers will work but be trickier to maintain, especially with water changes.

I don't know enough about plants but I suspect the problem is due to the use of phosphates in planted aquaria.

What fish are you keeping that you feel you need to raise the pH?

Over 6 months of fighting with very soft water I have tried proper pH, crushed coral, seachem alkaline and acid buffers, and the cichlid products ... Everything was a roller coaster except the cichlid buffer. The cichlid buffer is the only thing that lasts until a water change, even these recent times when the water change was delayed by a few weeks.

My situation may be different, but just wanted to throw that out there.


Sent from my iPhone with three hands tied behind my back.