Best product for maintaining neutral ph?

[888fish]

170g freshwater tank: slightly overstocked with predatory fishes
- bare bottom tank with large driftwood
- 70% water change weekly
- san francisco resident
- Ammonia = 0
- Nitrates = 15-20

The problem: My 13" Tigrinus catfish sometimes sloughs off his slime coat towards the 5-7 day, doesn't eat and seems stressed. As soon as I change the water (70%) his slime clears off and it eats the same evening.


Looking for the best product to help maintain ph value around neutral.
I will buy a ph kit after work.


Any seachem products recommended? Phosphate free correct?

Thanks.

 

[Heathd]

Seachem makes a powder that works great, its called nuetral or something like that, and automatically adjust it to 7.0, and you wont have to worry about the additive causing the ph to drop below 7 like others.

But, it could be expensive for a tank of that size to use something like that.

Have you thought about driftwood or peat?

 

[knifegill]

Well, is you pH going too high or too low? If is drops like mine:
Easiest way to raise (and buffer) it is with crushed coral gravel in small amounts. Some people also add sodium bicarbonate to new water, but do some reading on that one first.

If it somehow rises:
I haven't had to remove hardness from my water, so I don't know they easiest/most affordable way to do that. Check your tank for things that might be dissolving and raising the pH.

 

[paintballingajs]

Seachem makes a powder that works great, its called nuetral or something like that, and automatically adjust it to 7.0, and you wont have to worry about the additive causing the ph to drop below 7 like others.

But, it could be expensive for a tank of that size to use something like that.

Have you thought about driftwood or peat?

X2

 

[MonsterMinis]

have you tried 40% 2x week instead of one big weekly change?

though Stabalize does work okay imo, doing the amounts of Wcs and such.. you're best off prolly investing in a small RO unit and pre-mixing for your WC's. the start-up will cost a few $ but you'de likely break-even/save alot within' the first year. It would at least be worth priceing it out and looking into.

 

[knifegill]

How can peat moss or RO be suggested without knowing what her pH problem is? And what are the odds that she would need to try lowering it? Usually pH drops throughout the week as water ages and waste accumulates. She's more likely to need buffering than softening. But until we know which way her water is swinging, we won't know what she should try.

 

[888fish]

I'm going to start checking my ph values. I've switched from 1 x 70% change/week, to 2 x 50% change/4 days. All seems better, but with a family.... I hardly had enough time for one water change rather than two. Problem is....it only affects the tigrinus catfish (scaleless!)

So the sechem neutral regulator? I don't have a sump for the crushed coral and adding a tied bag of it into the tank looks ugly! Thanks.