Crushed Coral - Guidance Would Be Appreciated!

[petal040]

Hi - first of all thanks to everyone who has helped me with my recent questions!

I got my tank water tested today at the lfs (as my pH was off the scale on my own tests). pH is just below 6. Ammonia sitting at 0.25 with many water changes. 0 Nitrite, 5 Nitrate (ish).

I have bogwood in my tank. My water hardness from the tap is 0.
Water comes out the tap at pH 7.2

I think - the bogwood lowered my pH and it crashed due to 0 hardness? This led to a massive ammonia spike (as the bacteria went dormant or stalled)?

If I remove the wood - and add some different plants (currently all plants are rooted onto the wood) - will this help the pH rise a little with water changes?

I want the pH to rise so my bacteria is able to process ammonia - and so I can reduce the number of water changes hopefully.

Should I add crushed coral to buffer the water, to prevent future crashes?
If so - how far would this raise the pH (over time?)

Any advice much appreciated.

 

[afishdude]

I would take the bogwood out. No doubt that that is what is making your ph plummet.

 

[drobbyb]

I run crushed coral in my tanks, so I might be able to offer a bit of insight. The crushed coral will increase your pH and hardness over time. The maximum effect will be seen at about 3 weeks. The thing you have to watch out for would be when you go to do a waterchange and your tank's pH is a good bit higher than your tap water's pH. This could result in pH shock to your fish. To combat this, you must do weekly large waterchanges. You aren't really trying to increase your pH and hardness, but rather you are preventing a crash (and adding vital minerals to the water for your fish).

I suffer from 0 hardness and crushed coral did the trick for me. Just remember to stay on top of those waterchanges!

 

[petal040]

Hmm - okay - is there another way of buffering the water - or increasing the hardness, without raising the pH?

The tapwater pH would be fine (it's 7.2).

 

[drobbyb]

Unfortunately, anything that raises your hardness will also raise your pH (KH or carbonate hardness "buffers" the water and will raise your pH accordingly). Your GH and KH matter more than your pH. Fish will adapt to whatever pH they are kept in.

Adding common baking soda to the water will raise your KH and pH, but it really isn't for someone new to fishkeeping.

 

[petal040]

Oh I'm so confused!

The bogwood is now out of the tank. It had lots of plants attached to it. We replaced it with a plastic root-shaped decoration and a bunch of new plants (I don't know much about plants, but so far we have been pretty successful with them - I don't know what the ones I've put in are but will monitor them to check they are okay, not dying etc).

Fish all seem super happy these days.

Ammonia still between 0.25 and 0.5 (depending how long it's been since a water change). We're doing 50% changes daily. Nitrite 0, Nitrate 5ish.

There is no longer any bogwood to lower pH. pH from the tap is 7.2 which is okay for my fish. My fish prefer lower pH (I think - having read about them) and so I would prefer to keep it around 7.2 but avoid crashes.

By how much does coral raise the pH?

Any other suggestions?

 

[shelaghfishface]

what fish do you have? some are quite adaptable to small changes in PH where of course others really are not

 

[saltynay]

I would just chuck the crushed coral in there and see what reading you get it normally maxes out around ph8 that it raises but there are too many factors to just state a ph it will turn to. After a few days test your ph as it will take a couple of days to become stable. If its too high then put the bogwood back in and wait a few more days and test.

 

[Infidel_Uk]

im wanting to add crushed coral also , my ph is @ 7.5 currently , fish will be f8 puffers , so im thinking add some crushed coral, and counter act the ph rise with some bulsa wood , or does it have to be bog wood ?

 

[petal040]

The fish I have are 2 angelfish, 10 tetras (5 xray, 5 glowlight), 1 siamese algae eater and 3 (small) clown loaches (plan is to get a bigger tank once we have saved up some money - didn't realise the size they grow to when we got them).