pH and Substrate

[talenzmeier]

Hello,

I'm new to the site and I'm jumping right in with a question. My pH is high and I'm not sure what to do about it. I have a 37 gallon tank that has both fish and plants. My substrate consists of gravel/rock and crushed coral for color. For plants, I have two Amazon Swords, a pygmy Sword, Annubias, Rotala Indica, and Apon. Boivinianus. I have 8 Danios (4 leopard and 4 zebra), 15 Neon Tetras, 5 Golden White Clouds, 2 German Rams, and a Gourami. Today I did a 20% water change that brought the pH down to about 7.8 from a high of 8.3. Since I'm a newbie, I hesitant to do anymore water changes for fear of ruining a newly cycled tank. I would rather not force the pH down by using chemicals. I've got conflicting advice. Some say remove the coral, others say leave it, and still others say everything will be fine.

 

[justDIY]

My substrate consists of gravel/rock and crushed coral for color ... Some say remove the coral, others say leave it, and still others say everything will be fine.

I'm not sure why anyone would tell you crushed coral is OK to leave in a f/w tank?! ... Unless your goal is to achieve specificlly hard water for certain fish, it's not something you want to mess with.

If you can do it without a total breakdown, remove all the coral - it is leaching calcium into your water, raising your PH and increasing the waters hardness

Water changes will only cause PH swings, causing it to rollercoaster up and down ... the coral will work quickly to raise the ph even after changing the water, so there is little to be done to combat that except adding chemicals or using a water softner pillow ... this isn't a good solution though ... an analogy would be a room that has AC is too cold, so instead of reducing the AC, you turn on a heater. ... the two fight each other

It sounds like you've got a nice setup - best of luck with it!

 

[Guest]

I totally agree with glmcell, that coral is bad news, and the source of all your ph/hardness problems. All those fish, tough call to figure out how to swap out the coral without having to re-cycle.

 

[talenzmeier]

Next Step

Thanks for the advice. I will remove the coral. It does annoy me that I got such lousy advice from what was supposed to be reputable dealer!

My next question is how best to do this. Should I remove all the fish and plants and institute a wholesale change? Or should I remove it gradually? Or should I remove it with the fish in the tank? While certainly a pain, I could break it all down, saving the water to put back in the tank. Thanks, in advance, for your advice!

 

[talenzmeier]

Part Deux

Ok, so now I have removed 99% of the crushed coral. I've put new rock in, first having washed it thoroughly. The water is cloudy, but I suspect that will diminish shortly. Now how soon might I see the pH drop?

 

[D_Frag]

I would suspect that the pH wouldn't drop without a series of water changes, or adding a "pH down" type product.

 

[talenzmeier]

How Many Water Changes

That makes sense. How much of a water change should I do? I have a 37 gallon tank.

 

[Guest]

I would do 20-25% a week, for the next couple weeks. You did say the tank was newly cycled? If thats the case, you dont want to upset the water chemistry too much all at once.