Water Chemistry - ph and hardness
- Thread starter Danh
- Start date
THAT is what was wanting to do. I want to raise the hardness without raising the ph too much in order to stabilize the ph. The coral was what I had planned as my buddy suggested.. I just felt like I might raise my ph by too much which would result in my water changes causing the ph fluctuations I'm trying to avoid.
I found the answer. Below 7.6 ammonia is ammonia and toxic. Above 7.6 ammonia converts to ammonium and is very toxic.
I think I'm going to add some cc to the sump. Just a little bit. Hopefully I'll see more of an impact to kh than ph... but not a whole lot of kh either.
I think parts of that are incorrect.
NH3 is un ionized ammonia and toxic
NH4 is ionized ammonia (aka ammonium) and non toxic
The % of NH3 increases greatly as pH rises, and somewhat based on temperature.
The amount of ammonia (NH3) triples as pH increases by .5 assuming the temperature is constant (e.g., from 6.5 to 7.0 pH at 77F) It also doubles when the pH is constant and the temperature rises 18 degrees F.
Ammonia in the form of NH3 is always toxic. It's just that at very low pH, it is primarily in the form of NH4 which is non toxic.
http://www.thekrib.com/Chemistry/ammonia-toxicity.html
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Adding crushed coral will help buffer you water, but it doesn't work quickly, and usually reaches a sort of equilibrium.
I would suggest more frequent smaller water changes so any fluctuations would be minimal, even with crushed coral in the tank.
for example
if you do 1x 50% water change per week, and pH bounces, instead try 2x 30% water changes per week, my guess is pH levels will not bounce around so dramatically.
And by removing the components (fish urine, pheromones, etc) that eat up the buffering capacity of the water more often, you system will be much more stable
I would suggest more frequent smaller water changes so any fluctuations would be minimal, even with crushed coral in the tank.
for example
if you do 1x 50% water change per week, and pH bounces, instead try 2x 30% water changes per week, my guess is pH levels will not bounce around so dramatically.
And by removing the components (fish urine, pheromones, etc) that eat up the buffering capacity of the water more often, you system will be much more stable
Depending on your particular setup, I think an auto drip system would serve you well. Out of curiosity, what is your KH reading? If it is over 1, I personally wouldn't even bother. If you keep up on your water changes, and don't let your nitrates creep up, theres really no reason to worry about the hardness.
Thanks for the info guys.
I can't auto drip. Maybe my problems before were started by nitrates. I had crazy bio filtration but not so great mechanical that I didn't really keep up with. I did both for this tank. I do plan to do more frequent smaller changes as well.
I can't auto drip. Maybe my problems before were started by nitrates. I had crazy bio filtration but not so great mechanical that I didn't really keep up with. I did both for this tank. I do plan to do more frequent smaller changes as well.
catfishacr
@DrstrangeloveAfter much deliberation I added some coral to the sump last Thursday night. Friday night ph had gone from 6.0 to 6.5. I did a 40% water change that wasn't too visible on the test but must have gone to 6.25 as my tap is 6.0. Kh had gone up to 30-40. By Saturday night the ph was up to 7.
Then I found what you two meant. I still had ammonia in the tank, I assumed because the bacteria has had a hard time taking off at such a low ph. I had no nitrite or nitrate. In that 24 hours I went up a tick on nitrite and nitrate went to 5. Well the fish hated it. The 5* temp drop (that I never saw any problem with in the past) probably didn't help. I've managed to recover with no more problems though.
Unless I filter the water through some coral as I add it back to the tank then that's not going to work. I can make a filter to run the water through.. and I guess because it's so soft it will make some kind of change to the ph, but probably not enough to bridge the gap between 6 and 7+.
So at this point I'm back to - LEAVE IT ALONE... at a ph of 6.... I'll have NO bacteria, but yet the ammonia isn't toxic? Do I run the risk with the soft water, though, that if I drop the ball on water changes that due to the softness, the ph will spike and kill the fish?
I don't think 6 is low enough to totally down your bacteria. Just slow them. You said the tank is less than 6 months old? How long has the tank been setup? There are other ways to bring your ph and hardness up. You could do coral in the sump as you have, argonite substrate, lace rock decorations, high oxygen content, etc. If you are lax with water changes, your ph will drop further as nitrate converts to nitric acid. That's the "ph crash" a lot of people are concerned about in soft water tanks. With such soft water, I think you just need to give the tank a few more months to mature.
