Raise ph

[wildone]

I'm sorry to beat a dead horse again but, my ph is below 6.0 and I need to raise it, how much crushed coral should I use in my 55 g? All other parameters are great, just can't keep my ph level/up thank you.

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[fishywishywowoo]

Im not an expert at all but I was advised that to raise my ph I should vacuum the gravel. It did work. Raised from 6 to 7. Dont know why it worked and not dropped again

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[wildone]

I vacuum my gravel every 3rd water change, so this last time I did and no change :-( thanx for your input.

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[threnjen]

I would start adding crushed coral at a rate of 1/2 cup per day, just to make sure it doesn't make it swing too quickly. Most of the time if you buy it it will be 20-40lb and you won't need all of that anyway, so just adding it a bit of a time is the best way to approach it.

 

[wildone]

Thanx threnjen, where should I put the coral? In a media bag, suspend it under my filter, or just mix it in with my gravel?

 

[enrgizerbunny]

Thanx threnjen, where should I put the coral? In a media bag, suspend it under my filter, or just mix it in with my gravel?

I went to target and bought a pair of women's tights (on clearance for $3) then cut the foot off and left about 10 inches of the leg attached. Pretty straight forward after that. Fill with coral place in desired location, check back and see how much has dissolved, dose accordingly.

I put mine in the top basket of my filter and it didn't take very much to buffer it up. My PH was dropping from 7 to 6.4 in a week between water changes. Now it's very stable.

 

[wildone]

Thanx Enrgizerbunny, that helps a bunch, I can't figure out why it's dropping, didn't think the Malaysian drift wood would make such a difference after being in there for a couple of months, at least that's all I can think of that's dropping it?

 

[jwh0818]

Thanx Enrgizerbunny, that helps a bunch, I can't figure out why it's dropping, didn't think the Malaysian drift wood would make such a difference after being in there for a couple of months, at least that's all I can think of that's dropping it?

Dw does drop your ph quite a bit. I recently added another small piece buy have yet to notice a difference and its malaysian as well

 

[enrgizerbunny]

Mine was just lack of buffering capacity of my tap water, so the nitrification process was just doing its thing all over my PH

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[wildone]

Good news, so I put some crushed coral in an old charcoal bag, the refillable ones, anyways put 1/2 cup in tested the PH first, 6.0, 24 hours later 6.8 yippee, however I did take out 1/4 cup of coral so as not to keep it rising. Thanx to everyone. This works great!!!

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[Brookster123]

Im not an expert at all but I was advised that to raise my ph I should vacuum the gravel. It did work. Raised from 6 to 7. Dont know why it worked and not dropped again Sent from my GT-I9505 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

well that's a new one..where'd you hear that? I'm curious as to how this could have worked? No dis respect.

 

[tnfinfan]

well that's a new one..where'd you hear that? I'm curious as to how this could have worked? No dis respect.

It wasn't me who said it but I can see how it would help if you remove decaying matter. The decay process is what lowers pH gradually an in an older aquarium and dirty substrate combined with more laxed water change habits are what causes "old tank syndrome" (characterized by very low pH, soft water, and high nitrates). In a newer tank, you can have the same low pH issues much earlier if your water is soft and lacks buffering.

 

[shark21]

Interesting because I have had the same tank for 5 yrs and never had a problem with my pH level..I moved a few months ago and the water is so different (allot more soft) so I am having the same issues trying to keep the pH level up and balance it ..even with less fish in my tank than the old house. I believe your tap water plays a huge role in your pH level in general! I am going to try some crushed coral my self as a last resort at this point..