How Do You Raise Ph With Malaysian Driftwood?

[Jag1980]

My pH has always been at 7.1 and now since I added these 2 medium pieces of driftwood my PH is now 6.5
I am building a DIY CO2 system this week and with this new drop in my PH level I am now worried.

What should I do?
25% water changes every few days?
How long will the PH keep dropping with this driftwood in my tank?
I heard I could use crushed coral, But I don't know how much I should use and when I would be able to stop using it?

My GH last tested 2 weeks ago was at 90mg / Liter is what they wrote down for me (whatever that means)

Nitrate 5
phosphate 0.3
PH was 7.1 like it always has been
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
(I been messing around with fertilizers a couple days before this test)

A separate test from Petco using the Dip strip 2 weeks ago read
Hardness 75
Alkalinity 60
Details of my tank in my Sig
Running a Emperor 400 now But I will be pulling out my EMP-400 and replacing it with a Fluval 1 Plus Filter this later this week after I install my DIY CO2 setup.

If my PH is low from driftwood, then I raise it from a water change, then the up and down of a DIY yeast CO2, and if I added coral. What should I do because all this is making me confused and I don't want to test these ideas with the live of my fish..

 

[Miss Wiggle]

first thing to do is have a read of the link in my sig pH and KH, it gives some more info, tells you how to adjust them sensibly etc.

Once you've done this bit of background reading you'll have a better understanding of your problem.

The important question to ask after this is 'do i actually need to adjust my pH?' most fish are surprisingly tolerant of pH variations outside of what they would have in their natural environment.

Read the topic, ask any questions you have from there then we'll start looking at your individual situation and decide weather you need to change things and what the best way to change them is.

 

[Jag1980]

My PH is at 6.5 right now, I'm not to much worried about my fish in 6.5 water, but I am worried about what is going to happen after I do my Yeast CO2 system. How much farther is this going to drop my PH?

A water change brings my PH to about 6.8 and I don't have filters that I can add anything into; Fluval 1 Plus and a power head that is like a smaller version of the fluval Plus 1 filter and is also my CO2 diffuser.
I just added a golf ball size piece of Tufa rock in my tank, but that probably wont do much in a 29 gallon?
I'm not really interested in adding baking soda to my tank since the water is going to drop again anyway with this method.

I don't know how low my fish can go on PH levels and I don't want to test it out on there lives, I have had these fish for a very long time.

 

[england]

not sure with co2 etc,,,,
but i see you have a jaguar

please do a post with your jag pics, always love to see new jags

 

[Jag1980]

I figured I would have got a little more help about this from such a large forum..

but i see you have a jaguar

please do a post with your jag pics, always love to see new jags

Here's my fish
[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/content/Members-...Jaguar-Chiclid/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/Members-...Jaguar-Chiclid/[/URL]

 

[Mr Bliss]

Your pH will most likely drop by 0.6 - 0.8 after you activate your CO2 system, unless your alkalinity is below 20 ppm, in which case you might experience a major pH crash. I don't know if bogwood affects the reliability of the usual CO2-KH(alkalinity)-pH calculation, or if the bogwood-associated drop in pH is simply a result of lowered alkalinity. In any case your alkalinity is probably lower than it was two weeks ago, and I'd suggest you measure it again. If it's anywhere close to 20 ppm (roughly KH 1 on the German scale), you should raise it by another 20 ppm before starting the CO2 reactor. Baking soda would be a simple method, and it'll also push your pH up slightly. Yes, it's a temporary solution, but the bogwood's effect on your pH and water hardness is a temporary problem. Eventually less and less tannins will leach out, and the cation exchange activity (which directly affects the hardness and pH of the water) of the bogwood will grind to a halt.

You might also take the pieces of bogwood out and boil them for a couple of hours. Boiling removes a large amount of tannins and other organic compounds that would otherwise be slowly leaching into your tank.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

the planted tank forum would possibly be a better place to get help regarding this, CO2 is only really used in planted tanks which is a small %age of the users of this forum. most other people won't be able to give much detailed advice on it's effects so best to ask in the relevant specialised forum IMHO.