Easy Way To Raise Ph?

[lychas]

i got a tank of rainbowfish and turtles and the ph was at about 6, i added ph up, is there anything else to help buffer the water, what about coral skeletons?

 

[celaeno]

i have a problem with declining ph in my tanks. to raise the ph, i add the appropriate amount of pure baking soda. i try not to raise it more than 0.4 every 4 hours.

 

[Torrean]

lots of things can raise PH. caleano how long do the buffering properties of baking soda last?

I am not a fan of PH up. It's buffer doesn't last long at all making your tank dependent on it. It is better to have the wrong PH than to have a PH that fluctuates wildly. If you HAVE to alter your ph then you could try the baking soda (easier to know how much to add with this), (these are trial and error but the change is slow and steady) some crushed coral, oyster shells, some aragonite (available in most good lfs), or lot's of other things. The main thing with PH is stability and slow changes.

 

[celaeno]

lots of things can raise PH. caleano how long do the buffering properties of baking soda last?

half a week to one week before it starts dropping again.

 

[Amerce]

I have a stocking with coral sand in the tank filter and that gently and consisitently raises the ph, so no drastic changes there and the cory don't cut themselves on it.

My out of tap ph is 6 and this helps to get to to around 6.5 / 6.7.

 

[Davey Jones]

i got a tank of rainbowfish and turtles and the ph was at about 6, i added ph up, is there anything else to help buffer the water, what about coral skeletons?

Putting in an air pump will aerate the water, driving off the carbon dioxide (CO2) which will also up your ph, adding limestone as well, not sure of quantity's or by how much it will be raised though

 

[George Farmer]

One teaspoon of bi-carbonate of soda (different to baking soda) will raise approx. 1dKH per 100 litres of water.

You can work out what pH influence this will have as KH and pH are linked. Assuming you have around 4ppm CO2 (a "regular" non-CO2 injected tank) you can cross-refer to a CO2/pH/KH table.

With each water change you could add the approriate qty. of bi-carb to the fresh water.

I assume your tap is very soft with pH of 6 so aim to get an overall KH of say 6+ for rainbowfish. This should give you around pH 7.5+ assuming no CO2-injection and good maintenance regimes i.e. non-build up of excess (acidfying) nitrifying bacteria.

Another simpler option is to put some crushed coral/oyster shells or similar in a canister filter, but obviously this isn't as controlled.

 

[Torrean]

an aragonite substrate should raise your PH to about 7.8 and keep it there.