Altering pH naturally

[robertmarda]

It has been a while since I have logged on and read in the forums and posted in them and so I ask that you please forgive me if my questions have been answered elsewhere and feel free to point me in the right direction.

I am coming out of a period of being lazy about doing fish tank maintenance and am rededicating myself to being more diligent. I have also forgotten some of the things I learned, among those is how to alter pH naturally.

I read a few posts here and saw that crushed coral can raise the pH to 7.8. I never knew that putting it in the filter was an option. Will just a little bit raise it all the way to 7.8 and keep it there? Does it loose its ability to raise the pH after a while and need to be replaced?

If I remember right sea shells and such can raise the pH also. The ones we used in a tank at work were boiled first before being placed in the tank. One thing I realised today was this. The oyster shells put in the tank about a year or 2 ago seem to be completely intact. However, shells that I found at the beach seemed to almost completely dissolve over time. Those shells were solid white. Feel free to let me know if I shouldn't have put these shells in the tank. But that again brings me to a similar question as I stated above. Do such shells loose their ability to raise the pH over time? I ask this because the oyster shells seemed to work when first placed in the tank but now the pH is low inspite of the oysters being in the tank.

Or are there other factors that can lower the pH more than the shells raise it?

 

[greenmaji]

Its quite possible the crushed coarl will bring the PH up higher then you actually want. (above 8 wouldnt supprise me any) alot of planted tank fokes use it with CO2 injection so this is less of an issue.

You might be cautious about raising the PH if you are getting back into the routine of maintaining your aquaium, it could be low from the lack of maintance. The biological process of removing ammonia and nitrite creates acid redusing the PH untill you do your normal water changes it will be low. In other words try getting back into your normal water change routine before desideing that you need to raise your PH. (your KH of your sorce/(waterchange) water compared to the KH of your current tank water would tell you if this is an issue)

baking soda can be used in measued amounts to raise the PH (it takes VERY little to bring it up so care is needed in using it) If I remember correctly it was one teaspoon per fifty gallons brings up KH 1 point. The equasion is actually on thekrib somewere (I personaly have trouble finding anything there very easily so maybe someone can double check my memory on this one)

I hope some of this may have helped.

 

[Johnmc]

I agree it is a good idea get into a water change routine so you can properly assess the normal PH level in a well maintained tank. If you then want to raise the PH, I would prefer crushed coral to baking soda or PH UP! Baking soda and PH UP! change PH quickly, and in my experience, temporarily. In any case, whichever method you choose, add the crushed coral, PH UP! or baking soda very sparingly. It only takes about a cup of crushed coral to raise the PH in my 46G from 7.0 to 7.8.

 

[greenmaji]

The temperary nature of adding any addive is natural from normal maintance. If you deside to use baking soda its nessisary to calculate ammounts to add when doing water changes. CC buffers the water as its added (the PH drifts alot but much more slowly), I would also advise anyone thats using CC to get a PO4 testkit and test at least monthy to see if your CC as exausted and leaching PO4, removeing and replacement fixes this.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Crushed Coral stops raising the pH at 7.8. That is the level in which it stabalizes. If I remember correctly, it needs to be switched out about every 6 months. I prefer cc over baking soda because you don't have to dose anything at every water change. And it is easy to mess it up (accidently putting in too much). Crushed Coral is basically a "set it and forget it" type of thing. Now that our natural water supply has a pH of 8.2, we don't use it anymore. But we used to change it about every 6 months.

 

[greenmaji]

Crushed Coral stops raising the pH at 7.8. That is the level in which it stabalizes.

Thanks, I thought I remembered ~8.2 for some reason..

 

[robertmarda]

All good information, thanks!

Can you tell me what KH is and how it relates to pH?

So crushed coral can stop working after a while. Is it bad to have PO4 in a tank? Or is that simply the way you can tell when the crushed coral has stopped working?

My best guess as to why my fish were not acting normal and not eating was something about there environment so I tested pH, Ammonia, and Nitrite and found that the pH was so low the color didn't match my color chart. So, I added the recommended amount of pH up in my 55 gallon tank 5 days in a 6 day period before it registered as about 6.2 pH. Now the fish are acting normal and eating as usual.

So, does lack of maintenance usually cause the pH to drop over time?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

PO4 is phosphates. pH UP is not a good product to use because it does not buffer the water properly. It is a temporary fix that usually goes away after a few days.

Lack of maintenance will cause the pH to drop. When you do a water change it replentishes the natural buffering capacity.

 

[greenmaji]

KH is carbonate hardness (cacium and magnisum ions in the water), it is responcable for the point at wich your PH will stabilize.
check out the artical section about lowering PH (yes it goes into great detail about water chemistry and will help explain some of whats going on even if your not intrested in lowering PH)

 

[robertmarda]

Yeah, I didn't think the pH up would stay too long, but had to do something to get the fish eating again.

I noticed the hyperlink on PO4 and read what it was and I then changed the question from What is PO4? to what you see now and probably did it after you replied.

Thanks, I was planning to discuss lowering pH in this thread as well, since my tap water is higher than 7.0. I'll read the article and see if I still have questions after reading it.

 

[greenmaji]

phosphate is a nutrient that is needed for plant life. If you have no plants, alage consumes it (or the presence is just encouging some type of plantlife to flourish)

 

[Johnmc]

I’m certainly no expert on phosphates, but should leaching phosphates be a concern if the plants (and fish) are healthy and there are no algae issues? I haven’t changed my crushed coral for years. I don’t see the harm in periodically changing it, but are there other benefits in doing so?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Robert- Lowering pH is alot more difficult than raising it. Unless your pH is higher than 8.0, don't mess with it. I am keeping Rams in 8.2 without any problems.

 

[greenmaji]

Robert- Lowering pH is alot more difficult than raising it. Unless your pH is higher than 8.0, don't mess with it. I am keeping Rams in 8.2 without any problems.

Agreed.. I have had sucess with much higher then 8 PH with angelfish (known soft water fish) so long as your not trying to induce spawning there is no need for messing with the PH.

 

[robertmarda]

Thanks!

 

[greenmaji]

I’m certainly no expert on phosphates, but should leaching phosphates be a concern if the plants (and fish) are healthy and there are no algae issues? I haven’t changed my crushed coral for years. I don’t see the harm in periodically changing it, but are there other benefits in doing so?

so long as its still buffering the water and you dont have algae it would be a just be a proactive measure to change it. I would still advise testing PO4 levels though.