Baking Soda To Raise Ph

[XeroTolerance]

Hello everyone! Tonight I'm going to Walmart and I was wondering what baking soda I should buy to raise my pH. I'm doing a fishless cycling and every 3 days or so my pH drops too much. I'm just going to use it for the cycle because it is way to dangerous to use it with fish in it. Also how much should I add if I would like to raise it to 7.6 or something. Or could someone give me an equation like "This amount = 1.0 of raised pH".

Thanks for reading!

 

[Gvilleguy]

Hey - good old Arm and Hammer Baking Soda will do the trick. I don't remember the ratio that helps raise it, but when I did it last year I added 1 tsp at a time until it got the the level I wanted.

 

[XeroTolerance]

Thanks for you reply. I think I'll do that.

 

[Aqua Tom]

1 teaspoon for every 40 litres from what I can remember.

 

[XeroTolerance]

Thanks . How high does 1 teaspoon take it though?

 

[StandbySetting]

Depends on the current KH+GH, but it should go no higher than 8.2.

 

[XeroTolerance]

Ok thanks. If I am keeping tetras is it important to know your KH and GH? I was just wondering because I have the API Master Test Kit and I didn't get that test.

 

[StandbySetting]

Not really, but you'll want to slowly bring the pH back down once the cycle is finished.

 

[XeroTolerance]

Ok thanks for your help!

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Not really, but you'll want to slowly bring the pH back down once the cycle is finished.

Why slowly? Why not just do it with the water change at the end?

 

[StandbySetting]

Well it partially depends on how high the OP took the pH, Large swings in pH can make some bacteria go dormant, it's best to do say a 50% water change one day, then another the next, after which you'd be down to 25% of the original solution, and by then the pH will be back down to a level suitable for most freshwater fish, that is unless the OP is wanting to keep species that prefer the higher end of the range.

 

[XeroTolerance]

Yeah I heard that if you raise it too high at once the bacteria go dormant like you said. I forgot which website it was on though.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

To raise the KH without raising the GH, add sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO[sub]3[/sub]), commonly known as baking soda. 1/2 teaspoon per 100 Liters raises the KH by about 1 dH. Sodium bicarbonate drives the pH towards an equilibrium value of 8.2.

From What You Need to Know About Water Chemistry, and Why

For sure a pH below 6.0 begins to create problems for bacteria. The more acid the pH gets below 6.0 the harder it becomes to keep any alive and reproducing. There is a wonderful article on the wild angel site I visit on how to cycle an acid pH tank. It can take months. I would link it but you can only read the forum if you are member.

Part of the article includes some comments by Dr. Hovanec on how one can cycle acid pH tanks:

"Hi Dr. Hovanec.
Introduction deleted.
One of our main issues:
1. How to get biofilter working at low pH?
2. Can nitrifying bacteria adapt somehow to low pH (i.e. < pH 5.0)?
3. Can a very slow adaption (several weeks/months), serve to help nitrifying bacteria cycled in an alkaline or neuter culture media, work in moderately acid media?
Hello Mr. R:
Thanks for the email - years ago (and I mean around 1986 or so) I spent several weeks exploring the entire Venezuelan Coast from Columbia all the way over the Orinoco Delta as a consultant for a company that wanted to build a shrimp farm somewhere - was a great trip. Before cell phones and the internet!
Please see my answers to your questions below and if you have any follow I would be glad to answer those also.
This basically answers the above 3 questions:
The best way would be to start at a higher pH and get the bacteria going then slowly reduce the pH. The bacteria will slow down and so you have to have lots ot patience and monitor ammonia and nitrite and keep the value below 2 ppm and let the bacteria adapt or select themselves for being able to work in the low pH environment. I am not sure how long it would take - probably months rather than weeks.
Also does your group tend to keep the fish in high humic conditions? Nitrifiers do not like humic acid or humic conditions so this is a potential problem. And if would be better to have a substrate for the bacteria to grow on like ceramic pieces etc rather than free swimming in water.
I have taken the liberty of attaching a few papers that show nitrifiers can be "adapted" to low pH values - 3.8 in one paper and it is interesting that they found large amount of Nitrospira as the nitrite-oxidizer which, of course, is what I showed years ago. So you could start with some of my One & Only as a seed and then slowly cultivate a low pH bacteria group (not mono or pure cultures). Once you had a decent population you could share amongst your group.
I hope this helps."

I have never read about the bacteria going dormant in higher pH. But I assume this is not a big issue as I do know African cichlid keepers and also read at a few cichlid sites and I have never come across posts suggesting that the higher pH in rift lake tanks is an impedement to getting such tanks cycled. However, I have not read extensively on this topic as I keep no high pH fish, only lower pH ones.

 

[XeroTolerance]

It is not necessarily high pH when they become dormant it is when there is a sudden change in pH.

 

[Gvilleguy]

The natural settled pH of my tap water is 6.0, so when I did my fishless cycle last year I had problems keeping the process going. I used baking soda to keep the pH up around 8.4, which seemed to help. When it was all finished I did a big water change to reset the pH - this is the first I'm hearing about that possibly impacting the bacteria! But I guess I was lucky as I did not notice any problems after that.