Very Small Ph Changes

[Miss Wiggle]

whats the best way to up a ph very very slightly, like from 7.3 to 7.4, been looking into tuffa rock and crushed oyster shells, that sort of thing and I think if we use either of them it'd go shooting up. Is there a good way to get very small increases.

 

[plantropimunity]

a small amount of crushed coral substrate or limestone in the tank will buffer your ph up.

 

[avirex]

i heard a little drop of baking soda wont hurt the fish..

 

[Bignose]

May I just ask, why are you trying to change the pH that small amount? In a cycled mature tank, the fish surely aren't going to be much happier, and in fact may respond poorly to changes in pH.

0.1 pH units are probably within the error of every home aquarist kit anyway, so you probably would not even notice the difference. That, and the pH changes during the day as a function of temperature, light, etc. 0.1 units is a very small amount to be worrying about.

 

[SirMinion]

It's best to leave the pH well alone. A tenth of a degree makes no difference anyway and if you mess it up you'll have a tankful of dead or at best, stressed fish.

The tapwater here in East Anglia is very hard and quite alkaline (up to pH 7.6), yet my softwater, acidic fish such as plecs and tetras thrive because they are used to it.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

it's for a tanganayikan tank, they like a high ph, in the shop they were kept at 7.4, ours is 7.3 so we figured no point messing with it tro start off with it, they can take it as low as 7.2. But we want to add some new tank mates at some point in a few months, and they like it around 7.5. As this would be optimum for all the tank inhabitants we thought if we can do it very very gradually, bump it up by .1 at a time and leave a good gap between changes before we add the other fish.

 

[plantropimunity]

tangs will be happy at like 8.0-8.3 as far as i know, and you can add a buffering substrate like ecocomplete to keep that level.

 

[Zagggon]

I bought some PH changer that boosts it up to 7.0, added it yesterday and the fish are doing great.

 

[Griz]

I don't think I could even detect a 0.1 change on my kit. To tell the truth, I'm not sure your fish will either.

I really don't think it's neccessary but... if you are going to do it I would add a small bit of tuffa rock, crushed oyster shells, crushed coral or limestone to your filter. I wouldn't mess chemicals; it's just not worth it, especially in your case.