Had water tested at my lfs today, it's showing high ammonia, low ph and nitrates and basically no KH. Have been told what to do to try and stabilise it, but they are a bit mystified as to why my ammonia has stayed so high for so long. They advised me agaisnt water changes until it stabilises otherwise I woud be starting the whole cycling process again? They have also told me to take the plants out of the tank (They are starting to die, I am hopeless at keeping plants alive!) and maybe the plants dying in the tank aren't helping. Was hoping to pick up fish next week but looks like I'll be waiting a bit longer!
How do you raise your PH?
- Thread starter SharonW
- Start date
You need alkalinity for the nitrification process. Add some baking soda. If your water is that soft, you're going to have constant problems once you add fish. You'll have to monitor pH quite frequently in which case you should think about getting an electronic pH meter. That, in turn, requires somewhat regular calibration.
Doing a water change will not make your cycloing process start all over... that is just bad/wrong advice...
I agree you will want to stabilize your PH before you get fish though...
Excessively high ammonia content will encourage the PH to drop... doing water changes to keep ammonia at a reasonable level (2~5 ppm during cycling) will make it much easier to stabilize the PH...
I've read a lot fo warnings about low PH not supporting bacteria. Yet I lived in Char.oltte, NC for many years where the water was very soft and I kept many tanks around 6.0 PH, sometimes falling lower, and never had any issues with keeping ammonia/nitrite readings at zero in mature tanks. Also there are hundreds of people who breed soft water Cichlids who strive for such PH conditions and keep their tanks cycled/mature without any problems.
It would be wise to add a bit of baking soda to the water to raise the PH and add crushed coral (or similar) to the filter to stabilize the PH. Since your tap water has little to no KH the crushed coral will substitute...
I agree you will want to stabilize your PH before you get fish though...
Excessively high ammonia content will encourage the PH to drop... doing water changes to keep ammonia at a reasonable level (2~5 ppm during cycling) will make it much easier to stabilize the PH...
I've read a lot fo warnings about low PH not supporting bacteria. Yet I lived in Char.oltte, NC for many years where the water was very soft and I kept many tanks around 6.0 PH, sometimes falling lower, and never had any issues with keeping ammonia/nitrite readings at zero in mature tanks. Also there are hundreds of people who breed soft water Cichlids who strive for such PH conditions and keep their tanks cycled/mature without any problems.
It would be wise to add a bit of baking soda to the water to raise the PH and add crushed coral (or similar) to the filter to stabilize the PH. Since your tap water has little to no KH the crushed coral will substitute...
Ok have had some good advice from a couple of my threads and they have all said water change! So will scoff at my lfs and do water changes until my ammonia is lowered. Am happy to add baking soda. Tank is 202 litres so how much would I need to add?? Treated the whole tank with carbonate hardness powder yesterday will water change tomorrow and test all parameters again tomorrow. Thanks heaps for your help, I dont know what I would have done if I hadn't found this site. Ummm probably have killed a few fish.........
A large water change isnt necessarily to start the cycle over, but to get rid of the bad water in your tank. I think when you added the stability without fish you might have ended up with a bunch of dead bacteria. this will be evident if you have smelly stinky water. this will add to the lower ph and the best way to solve it is just to get rid of it. baking soda can cause large shifts in ph and can be stressful for a new setup. if you have any early bacteria bed established you want to protect it and provide the least amount of srtess you can. I would do a fairly large water change and check the PH, if it is still really low and you have a low KH in your water supply you might add a little epsom salt to increase your hardness, thid will not affect your ph but will help with your buffering capacity. maybe a half cup per 100g. If your tap has a higher ph like around 7 just do daily waterchanges with smaller amounts of epsom and it will go up without the need for baking soda. once you get the tank to around your tap PH then you can add very small amounts of baking soda, like a teaspoon per 100g and check it after a few hours. a little baking soda goes a long way and shifting ph from like 6 to 7 is a huge shift and can be very stressful to everything so thats why use it last and sparingly.
Not really. Citric acid is...umm...acidic. But maybe some Tequilla would go nice with it.Cliff.W.;4186709; said:
