aqualad
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hi guys, so I've had my tank setup for two weeks tomorrow and everything appears to be going well. Well...almost everything. My alkalinity is somewhat low. Right now it's at 40 ppm or about 2.4 dKH. I want to raise it to about 120-180 ppm without lowering my pH. It's sitting at 6.7. So I may need to raise it a little too. So it appears I don't have a whole lot of minerals in my water. The only carbonate/bicarbonate I have in there at the moment is a piece of cuttlebone for my musk turtle. The tank I'm working on setting up now has a sand/crushed coral substrate, so I believe that will solve much of this but until I'm finished with it I need to figure the current one out. I've read that baking soda will do the trick and I believe that it may increase my pH somewhat. Any advice, tips, or tricks from some of you experienced aquarists out there? Keep in mind that I'm a total n00b when it comes to this. Much appreciated.