Question on crushed coral and Ph

[john.hunter225]

Hey everyone,

Ok after deleting my huge paragraph I want to keep this question simple.

If my Ph is 6.8, I add crushed coral until I get the Ph 7.4ish. (I have soft water too, a 2 on API GH KH kit)
If I do weekly water changes, say 20% will the change from 6.8 to 7.4 difference really effect fish in the tank?
Or does the change from the 6.8 tap water to 7.4 a slow process and the fish should be okay.

This question is more for knowledge than me trying to do something with my tank.

Thanks,
John

 

[thomasina]

Hey everyone,

Ok after deleting my huge paragraph I want to keep this question simple.

If my Ph is 6.8, I add crushed coral until I get the Ph 7.4ish. (I have soft water too, a 2 on API GH KH kit)
If I do weekly water changes, say 20% will the change from 6.8 to 7.4 difference really effect fish in the tank?
Or does the change from the 6.8 tap water to 7.4 a slow process and the fish should be okay.

This question is more for knowledge than me trying to do something with my tank.

Thanks,
John

John, I am pretty new to this all but I have used crushed coral. Once in each of two tanks. After two months it stopped working. I even used Regulator trying to get it up to 7.
The number of your pH really depends on the kind of fish you have. Each fish has a range of pH that they need. I would first check on that.
Then instead of using all those chemicals, pH Up or pH down, use some baking soda!! I use 1/8 of a teaspoon for my 20 g. tank. Then I wait for about 2-3 hours and test it again. then add another 1/16 teaspoon. This way it is slow. I hope you are using the API liquid master testing kit. It gives you the best and most accurate results.
When you are asking question in a thread, please give your tank size, all of your testing results and the type of fish you have. It helps in giving advise! And yes. raising it too high too fast is not good for the fish! I hope that I helped a little bit.

 

[librarygirl]

It should be fine. I use a small amount of coral in my filters to help buffer the water as it's pretty soft. The PH out of my tap is 8.4, but after it gasses off it goes down to 7.2 which is what my tank's PH is. I do weekly 50% water changes from the tap and the PH changes haven't seemed to bother the fish so I think you'll be OK.