Raising Ph

[bullit]

I could do with raising my ph on my tank. I just have coral sand in tank but have a load of coral gravel i mght be able to stick in one of my externals. Anything else i can do? cheers

 

[jonnyuk]

i used tuffa rock with crushed coral sand and it has risen my ph to 8.2>8.5 from 7.8.

i do only small water changes every week and this does'nt lower my ph.

 

[markandhisfish]

what are you keeping and what is your ph?

 

[bullit]

Its 7.4, up from 7.0. I know a more stable ph is normally fine but im going for some WC, hence i could do with raising it to over 8.

 

[rifty]

check how long the wc have been in the uk and what ph they are being kept at

 

[bullit]

They are in quaranteen now. They are at 8.1- 8.2.

 

[markandhisfish]

limestone rocks will help raise ph . you may well find this article on water chemistry very useful

http/www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/water_chemistry.php

 

[bullit]

Readind over there now mark. I forgot about limestone, good shout. I could maybe fill my filter with that. Looks like the old baking sodaa will be coming out aswell. lol.

 

[markandhisfish]

id be inclined to look into things a bit deepr as well tho . that article is good and it does give a good buffer recipe , but doesnt really go into much about maintaining stability which is the most important part , and probably the trickiest part to acheive .

you gh is more important than your ph tho. have you tested your gh? if your gh is good you can accept a less than perfect ph . like my water for example . my ph is 7.5 which is in the lower end of the range for malawis , but my gh is good so for me its best to just leave my water alone .

 

[bullit]

Yeah true. Im looking into it but as you say, its keeping that stability. I havent got a testing kit for hardness. What are you using?

 

[kiriyama]

baking soda 5ml per 10 gall or something ?
epsom salts 5ml per 10 gall or something ?
aquarium salts -----

I think the epsom salts raise the gh/kh and the baking soda raises the pH slightly, only problem is you have to calculate the percentage everytime you add water to the tank.....
Stable pH is more important, ocean rock/tuffa rock helps, or the caribsea cichlid sand
test kit I use is the API master test kit, ood kit and easy to use, only problem is there is no gh/kh in it

 

[bullit]

yeah thats the kit i have. Its a tea spoon of each to 5 gallon. It will be a case of getting a kh/gh test kit and then experiament with my tap water. I have some limestone though so will give that a go first over the next few days.

 

[kiriyama]

yeah thats the kit i have. Its a tea spoon of each to 5 gallon. It will be a case of getting a kh/gh test kit and then experiament with my tap water. I have some limestone though so will give that a go first over the next few days.

Cool, per 5 gall, now I know, cheers, let us know how it works with the limestone, I found some really nice stuff but the guy at the yard freaked when I told him it was going in my tank, sayin it had to high a lime content so it kind of put me off a bit

 

[bullit]

I think more the merrier on the lime content. Im gonna go for some cotswold chippings. Im sure this is just the larger rocks that are crushed. Im gonna start by filling one of my externals, then another option is to take all the sand out and have a inch of chippings at the bottom of tank and then i can cover with sand. Ill keep you posted.

 

[kiriyama]

I think more the merrier on the lime content. Im gonna go for some cotswold chippings. Im sure this is just the larger rocks that are crushed. Im gonna start by filling one of my externals, then another option is to take all the sand out and have a inch of chippings at the bottom of tank and then i can cover with sand. Ill keep you posted.

I have tried the aragonite coral gravel on the base covered with sand, I then heard that someone had been told by LFS staff that it had to be in contact with the water flow for it to work (?)
I have it in media bags in two trays in the external and it does raise the pH a bit. The funny thing is you can only add so much aragonite material before the pH stops raising any higher.
I have since found out that both methods are not advised as the calcium etc slowly dissolved, the in sand method causing problems for sand shifters and even the in filter causing probems with tiny dissolved particles irritating fishes lungs (?) Any thoughts ?
I think the cotswald will work in much the same way, I have pH7 from the tap, after much adding and tinkering I have slowly manaed to get it to pH7.8, high enough, as long as it's stable Just wondered if anyone had any thoughts on the cichlid sands avaliable now ? Such as the Caribsea fine grade cichlid sand ? Do you think they make much of a difference ?
Sorry for hijacking the thread bud, first/last post of the day