How do you raise your PH?
- Thread starter SharonW
- Start date
tank has been cycling for around 4 weeks, I had an ammonia spike around 10 days ago, but it's gone to 0 now but I have high Nitrates (50 mgs) BUT the driftwood in my tank has made my water quite red/yellow so think that might have affected the test results.
if the tank is completely cycled..... you could try crushed coral ( not as substrate, but just like a bag of it in the filter as media) . sometimes my tank mysteriously drops to low ph and with the crushed coral, it keeps it at 7.something.
Aragonite and Coral will help buffer. If you put it in the filter or decorated your tank with coral or used one of the two as substrate it might help? However I have read a couple of your posts and sorry if I am missunderstanding but have you actually put any fish in your tank to cycle it? I know you have plants... but actually having fish could certianly help.
No didn't like the idea of cycling with fish, so have been using seachem stability. The plants have also been getting fertiliser as well and I have put some fish food in there too. It seems to have finished cycling, well assume it has as the ammonia and nitrites have dropped and I have nitrates showing?
Test your tap water's pH. It should be significantly better than the tank's water after cycling. As water goes through the nitrogen cycle, the pH tends to drop.
You'll want to acclimate your fish to your tap water's pH anyway. That way you can do water changes without treating the new water first. (The fish are already acclimated if they were purchased at a local fish store.)
You'll want to acclimate your fish to your tap water's pH anyway. That way you can do water changes without treating the new water first. (The fish are already acclimated if they were purchased at a local fish store.)
It's dropping because of the tannic acid released from the driftwood and the ogranic waste build up you are allowing...
During cycling very few people do water changes to keep waste content in check which allows an unnatural setting in your aquarium.
I personally do not advocate 'cycling' a tank by simply tossing in some fish food. This is a very uncontrolled method. Instead I would encourage you to add liquid ammonia to the water directly. Search for "fishless cycle" for details.
Aquarium strains of Dempseys are not picky about PH levels, although it is important for them to live in a stable PH environment. So make your goal a stable Ph as opposed to acheiving some particular number.
During cycling very few people do water changes to keep waste content in check which allows an unnatural setting in your aquarium.
I personally do not advocate 'cycling' a tank by simply tossing in some fish food. This is a very uncontrolled method. Instead I would encourage you to add liquid ammonia to the water directly. Search for "fishless cycle" for details.
Aquarium strains of Dempseys are not picky about PH levels, although it is important for them to live in a stable PH environment. So make your goal a stable Ph as opposed to acheiving some particular number.