So I'm setting up my 75 gallon right now. I bought the tank, but everything else is pretty much DIY. I made a diy pvc overflow, made a wet dry filter/sump, bought plants on sale at hobby lobby, and broke them up and parced them down to multiple smaller plants (they were huge) and bought gravel from Home Depot, $3.75 per 1/2 cubic foot (which is about 50 pounds) waaay cheaper than fish store gravel.
Anyway, when I was considering the HD gravel, I wanted to make sure that it wouldn't screw with my PH. Last time I had a tank in it, I tried to add some petrified wood to it and it spiked the PH because it was basically lime stone.
I picked up 1 bag of gravel from home depot, even if it wouldn't work for the tank I could use it in my yard. I cleaned a small amount of it well, and put it in a bucket with some water. I checked the PH of the water out of the faucet and it was 7.5. After letting the gravel set in the water overnight I checked the PH and it had climed to 8. I thought I was going to have to scrap the HD gravel idea (and spend a whole lot more cash), but I decided to make sure, so I ran a control. I put some water in a bowl and left it out on it's own overnight. Sure enough the plain water had risen in PH to 8 by morning.
I'm assuming that the rise in PH is caused by Chlorine and other things gassing off? I had never really heard of or known about this phenomenon before. Good news is, for 12 bucks I got all the gravel I need, and it looks great in the tank. The gravel I was pricing at the F.S. was going to cost me about 90 bucks for all I needed. I also like that the HD gravel is bagged by volume not weight. It was real easy to figure that the .5 cubic foot bag would give me 1 inch of coverage in a 48x18 tank, and that 2 bags would give me the 2 inches I wanted.
Anyway, when I was considering the HD gravel, I wanted to make sure that it wouldn't screw with my PH. Last time I had a tank in it, I tried to add some petrified wood to it and it spiked the PH because it was basically lime stone.
I picked up 1 bag of gravel from home depot, even if it wouldn't work for the tank I could use it in my yard. I cleaned a small amount of it well, and put it in a bucket with some water. I checked the PH of the water out of the faucet and it was 7.5. After letting the gravel set in the water overnight I checked the PH and it had climed to 8. I thought I was going to have to scrap the HD gravel idea (and spend a whole lot more cash), but I decided to make sure, so I ran a control. I put some water in a bowl and left it out on it's own overnight. Sure enough the plain water had risen in PH to 8 by morning.
I'm assuming that the rise in PH is caused by Chlorine and other things gassing off? I had never really heard of or known about this phenomenon before. Good news is, for 12 bucks I got all the gravel I need, and it looks great in the tank. The gravel I was pricing at the F.S. was going to cost me about 90 bucks for all I needed. I also like that the HD gravel is bagged by volume not weight. It was real easy to figure that the .5 cubic foot bag would give me 1 inch of coverage in a 48x18 tank, and that 2 bags would give me the 2 inches I wanted.
