2 quick questions

[thutton33]

Hello,
I have a problem with my PH in my City it is very low....

Q1 - Can the PH be lower then the test kit goes and therefore give wrong results... Like the lowest the test goes it 6.0 (Pale Green) now the test solution itself if pale green, could my Ph in fact be 5 or lower and the test just cant show it?

Q2 - Can I add a rock of Limestone to my freshwater tank to raise it to mid 6 - low 7

Any fish I add within 1 day gets white edges to the fins and and then a white bump on the eyes/cloud, remain very inactive, however all test are fine other then low PH

Could this be the problem? Buffereing/PH is too low?

 

[thutton33]

I should also add that I have, treated with Melafix and such as at first I suspected infection, no effect

 

[neilanh]

I've never heard of city water being that low - that's crazy. I suspect the acidity of the water is maybe what's causing your fish issues. It's true that certain types of rock will raise the pH naturally, but I don't know much about it.

 

[thutton33]

I know it is annoying, I came from a city that was near perfect for my tank... now even the LFS Staff say it is a pain to keep their livebearers.

 

[Purrbox]

The easiest thing would be to add some Crushed Coral to your filter. By adjusting the amount of Crushed Coral you can adjust how much you raise the KH and pH.

 

[thutton33]

how quick does the coral take effect, I just bought a wide range ph tes.... and my PH is 5 on its chart which is he lowest it goes.... This city is garbage for my aquarium.. how much crushed coral would I need to add to a 75G tank to raise my PH by 1-1.5 that is assuming my PH isnt actually lower then 5..

 

[thutton33]

also would a limestone rock have the same effect? and last longer then the crushed coral? what is the time frame on replacing the coral in the flter

 

[Purrbox]

The Crushed Coral would raise the pH relatively slowly depending on the amount added. I'd add it slowly to avoid risking shocking your fish. No idea on the quantities needed for a 75 gallon aquarium.

While Limestone may have the same affect, it wouldn't be near as controllable as you can't remove half a rock if it buffers your water too much. You could place some in a bucket of water and test the effects over a couple of weeks to see if it's going to be too much or not.

 

[jsoong]

With your pH that low, there is likely some other buffer keeping it there. Crushed coral works great when there is no other buffer present, but with a 2nd buffer you might get some surprises.

At a pH of 5, there must be a considerable amount of buffer present. Adding a little carbonate will not change things. However, as you add more & more carbonates, it will eventually overwhelm the first buffer, and the pH suddenly jumps to 8 (the equilibrium pH of carbonate ... ie the cc). Unfortunately, in a mixed buffer solution, altering the buffer concentrations does not change the pH linearly. There is a big jump in the pH as the buffer concentration ratio hits a critical point. You cannot avoid that by adding the carbonate slowly, and your fish might not like that big of a pH change!

You have a couple of options. First you need to know your true pH. Since the wide range test only read to 5, the real pH might be even lower. You can read lower values with a pH meter (maybe get your lfs to do it), or you may get the number from that published by your water co. <My water co. post water test results on line.>

If the real pH isn't too drastically low, and it is stable, you might consider acclimatizing your fish to the low pH rather than try to change it.

The other alternative is to use R/O or distilled water, then add crushed coral to that water to give yourself adequate buffering capacity, and acclimatize your fish to that pH. Then stick with R/O+cc for all of your pwc, etc. <BTW - after reading your water co's analysis & finding out what is in the water that cause it be have such a low pH, you might just want to use R/O for your fish & yourself!>

If you want to try altering pH with just the cc in your tank, I would suggest doing that in a bucket to make sure there is no wild jump in pH. <You might be able to get away with just adding cc to your water, if it has many different buffers. In that case you might get a series of small jumps, rather than a big jump like in the 2 buffer system.>