Can you raise the PH w/WC's?

[LindaC]

If I do a small water change, could this bring my PH up a degree? I'd be removing some CO2 from the tank, right? This might be a totally stupid question but it makes sense to me.

I am now getting too much CO2, I just tested my water and my PH is at 6.5, yesterday morning before I started adding pressurized CO2, my PH was at 7.0. My KH is still at 50 and according to Chuck's chart, I'm now getting too much. I wasn't home all day, so I couldn't test it until now.

If anything, my needle valve kicked right back in where I left it last night, so that's a plus, I was worried about it after seeing that others were having a problem with the needle valve on the Milwaukee regulators.

So now I have to lower the bubble count and hopefully it will taper off at 6.6, which would give me ideal CO2, if I understand this correctly.



I am going to do a partial water change and add some ferts to my tank, I'm hoping that this will help.

Thanks!
Linda

 

[ringfinger]

A 50% water change takes my pH from 6.8 to 7, but only for a couple hours before my system brings it back down. This wouldn't be a practical way to be regularly adjusting your pH.

If I am reading your numbers correctly, then I think you should be shooting for a pH of around 6.5 giving you 27ppm Co2. I run mine at about 43ppm Co2 at all times.

 

[LindaC]

Your right, not really practical at all. Well my ph was at 6.5 when I tested it, but Chucks page states that I'm getting too much CO2 with a KH of 50. My fish were fine, not showing any signs of stress and my tank looked great. I did a small water change only to add some ferts to the tank.

 

[ringfinger]

I'm not really sure why he says that levels over 25ppm can be harmful to your fish. Most people on this site with successful tanks run 30+ppm without a problem.

 

[travis simonson]

I'm with ringfinger: running CO2 a little high is much better than running it too low. I've accidentally spiked mine up into the 60+ ppm range and my fish didn't show any signs of ill health. Not that I recommend that anyone run their CO2 at levels that high. It just indicates to me that the 25-30 ppm ceiling on CO2 suggested by many may just be the limit at which any further increases in CO2 concentration do nothing further to help your plants. Right now I keep my CO2 around 30-35 ppm in my tanks and have had no problems at all

 

[7Enigma]

I think I responded in another thread of yours but your KH is very low (dangerously low IMO) to be injecting CO2. I would seriously recommend slowly increasing the KH with baking soda or crushed coral so that you can better buffer against the CO2. PWC's will most definately increase the pH in a lot of cases since you are removing CO2, but more importantly the natural buffers present in the water that might have been depleted will also help to raise the pH. You need to shoot for 150-300ppm IMO, and then add the proper amount of baking soda to any new water during a PWC to avoid shocking the fish.

This is all just my opinion. Please wait for others comments before doing anything mentioned above.

 

[Purrbox]

50ppm KH = 2.8 dKH which is right on the edge of what most would consider safe for injecting CO2. Generally it's recommended that your KH be at least 3 dKH. I would say that you could probably get away without adjusting your KH but that if you don't you should definately keep an eye on it with regular testing. 150 - 300ppm KH is a bit excessive in my opinion, I would think that boosting the KH to 60-90ppm KH should be more than sufficient if you do decide to adjust your KH.

 

[7Enigma]

That's my mistake! I had posted in the other thread 60-90, but then forgot the conversion to degrees. Somehow I had thought today that 1degree=50ppm, when in fact its closer to 15.

That's also why I put the disclaimer in my above post.

 

[travis simonson]

Yes, you guys are right on. Having a dKH of 3 (or ~50 ppm KH) is the lowest recommended level. If you can keep your KH at that level (or higher) then CO2 will be no problem. Great advice guys