PH buffering with crushed coral

[12 Volt Man]

I keep a small bag of it in my Aquaclear.

for large fish that make lots of waste, it helps buffer against pH drop over the course of a week in between regular water changes.

with your tank, if your tapwater is 7, over the course of a few water changes after the addition of the crushed coral, it should stablize, as the carbonates that leach out of the coral will buffer your water such that you would not see such a pH drop and it will eventually read close to your tap water pH all the time.

 

[Toby_H]

From what was said it looks like the tap water has low buffering due to a low KH and once it has off gassed I'm starting off more acidic than I thought. Am I understanding this correctly?

I agree with your evaluation...

I keep a small bag of it in my Aquaclear.

for large fish that make lots of waste, it helps buffer against pH drop over the course of a week in between regular water changes.

with your tank, if your tapwater is 7, over the course of a few water changes after the addition of the crushed coral, it should stablize, as the carbonates that leach out of the coral will buffer your water such that you would not see such a pH drop and it will eventually read close to your tap water pH all the time.

I'm not sure that I agree with this...

12 Volt, If you are only using a small bit of coral in your tank to raise the KH but not really do much with the PH, then I think you're using a great approach and are all set...


But Nub is using coral to raise the PH from 6.5 to 7.8 as well as to bring the KH from almost nothing to still fairly low...

Thus if Nub were to do a 50% water change, the KH would drop considerably and the influx of acidic water on top of the dropping KH would likely allow the PH to swing back to 7 or so. Doing this every week may not be appreciated by the fish...

This is the reason I don't mess with my PH. I let it be whatever it is outt of the tap and I do maintenance frequently enough to not allow it to to fluctuate...

 

[12 Volt Man]

12 Volt, If you are only using a small bit of coral in your tank to raise the KH but not really do much with the PH, then I think you're using a great approach and are all set...

yes, this is what I am doing. its just enough to buffer the pH from dropping in between water changes.

its not enough to really raise the pH that much.

my regular water changes probably do more to keep the pH up, as my tapwater has a pH of about 7.4. this is roughly what my tanks test at.

to be honest, with my fish load right now, I probably don't need it.

I used to use it back when I had huge fish in overstocked tanks and it worked well. but I just kept the bag in there..good luck I guess?

 

[nub]

But Nub is using coral to raise the PH from 6.5 to 7.8 as well as to bring the KH from almost nothing to still fairly low...

Do you have any suggestions on other methods to raise KH?

Thus if Nub were to do a 50% water change, the KH would drop considerably and the influx of acidic water on top of the dropping KH would likely allow the PH to swing back to 7 or so. Doing this every week may not be appreciated by the fish...

I only do sbout 25-30% wc weekly. Since I started trying the crushed coral I've kept a close eye on the PH. I take water before the wc and test all parameters (except GH/KH because I didn't understand the results). I have been retesting the PH after about 24 hrs. because this was my main concern. There is no measurable change in the test result.

This is the reason I don't mess with my PH. I let it be whatever it is outt of the tap and I do maintenance frequently enough to not allow it to to fluctuate...

The whole reason I tried this method to start with was because nothing would live in our tank for more than a couple days. We got to the point we didn't even want to try anymore and almost broke the tank down. Our maintenance has always the same, I vac the gravel and do the water change every Saturday morning while enjoying a cup of joe. The PH level always drops off or at least reads the minimum on the test scale. It was my guess this was our problem. Bring a fish home that may have been living in water that was say 7.2 and drop them in water that was a max of 6 and they're not going to make it. Letting it be as is out of the tap isn't working. Like I've said I'm not trying to hit a number I just want to be able to keep fish period. We've had our tanks before moving here for over ten years and have never had any problems like this. I'm totally open to suggestions

 

[Toby_H]

Since you are already a few steps into trying this as a potential solution, keep trying. I hope it works out...


I spent 7 or 8 years in Charlotte, NC with a PH of around 6 and basically no KH... I never did anything to alter the PH and I raised, kept and bred all sorts of SA & CA Cichlids in it...


Is your tank "cycled"? Since you brought up just moving I have to wonder if you thoroughly cleaned the tank and removed the bacteria.


Keeping the PH stable is pretty darn important. So when you are refilling during the water change you may want to use baking soda to buffer the PH/KH... It does the same thing as coral but is easier to add.

I think adding baking soda upon refilling and keeping crushed coral in the filter to maintain the buffering is a wise approach when you are trying to boost your PH/KH...

With baking soda, a little goes a long way... Your going to have to just play with it to find a dosage that works best for you.

 

[carsona246]

I'm basically doing the same thing, so far so good over here.

 

[nub]

Is your tank "cycled"? Since you brought up just moving I have to wonder if you thoroughly cleaned the tank and removed the bacteria.

Yes the tank is cycled, it's been running for about two years since moving. Water parameters were posted earlier. Maybe my coment about having recently moved was missleading. My point was that previous we had no problems at all except what to stock. Since moving we can't seem to keep anything at all. Before moving we gave our fish to friends, emptied and cleaned the tank and filter. When we went set it back up it was cleaned again only to find a leak. The tank was resealed allowed to cure and cleaned agian. Anythings possible but I don't think bacteria is the problem. Thanks fotr the baking soda idea, I think I might use it to precondition my water before adding it to the tank.