What causes water ph to be low 5.8?

[hotshot]

My fish are healthy. I have my fish for 2 years, but cant seem to raise the ph. I have a 55 gal fresh water tank with 4 parrots, 1 clown loach, 1 tri color shark, 1 angel and a silver dollar. Tank does contain a lot of drift wood but has been in the tank over 2 years. Other than chemicals what can be put into the tank to raise ph?

[Obsessedfishlover]

Originally Posted by hotshot

My fish are healthy. I have my fish for 2 years, but cant seem to raise the ph. I have a 55 gal fresh water tank with 4 parrots, 1 clown loach, 1 tri color shark, 1 angel and a silver dollar. Tank does contain a lot of drift wood but has been in the tank over 2 years. Other than chemicals what can be put into the tank to raise ph?

There is a medicine that you can buy at your local pet store to control your ph.... Or get some good advice from your pet store guy they have other tablets and things you can put in there...

[Mrs.h2012]

I have to advise against the pH up/down chemicals, they end up doing more harm that good. I think it's crushed coral that you can add that raises pH. Hopefully someone else can chime in and say for sure.

[Link119]

How often have you been doing water changes and how much water do you change? Crushed coral will help and all you want to do with crushed coral is to take a little and put it in a bag in your aquarium.

[Rivercats]

First off you need to see what the Ph of your tap water is. Fill up a cup of water and either aerate it or stir it off and on over the next 24 hours. Then test to see what it's true ph is after it has gassed off.

If your tap waters ph is low then you will need to add a buffer, such as crushed coral, to raise and stablize your ph.

If your tap water has a much higher ph than your tank then the buffers in your tank water are depleted. In this case you need to do a 50% WC, then check the Ph. Keep doing WC's, along with cleaning the gravel daily or every couple days until you slowly get your ph back up. You need to be doing weekly 50% WC's to keep buffers in your water.