Why can't I lower My PH?

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T

Tien

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 1, 2010
198
0
0
Las Vegas
I am having one hell of a time lowering my Ph in my 8 gallon Fluval Ebi. I used the Fluval shrimp substrate which is supposed to lower,ph. It is heavily planted and maybe 8 shrimp. I have no rock. I have a piece of African root wood, a large piece of drift wood, and a Manzanita branch. I use solely ro water and the following additives:

Attisons Betta Spa (almond leaf extract and lowers Ph)

Flourish

Flourish Excel

I occasionally use the following Flourish products but not very often:

Flourish Iron, phosphate, and potassium.

Could the iron be raising the Ph? I'm going nuts over this! My Ph is currently 7.4. Any ideas?



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Reverse Osmosis removes all salts and therfore all buffering from the water. This RO water should be PH 6-7. Once you add your fertilizers they will effect the final PH. Having some salts in solution is beneficial to creating buffer capacity which will decrease PH fluctuations. I would suggest adding GH salts with your water changes to counter act this issue and increase your General Hardness (GH). I don't think straight RO water is best for plants or fish for that matter. It must be adjusted afterwards to get the correct GH. I know Kents makes a RO adjuster and there are others out there that will do the trick.

I use the Barr GH booster sold here ---> http://www.aquariumfertilizer.com/i...rnEdit=2&Returnitemname=&ReturnShowItemStart=
 
Initially I was using a mix of 80 to 90 percent ro water and the rest tap water. The tap water in Vegas is very hard with plenty of minerals. My Ph was really high so I started using ro only. Now I know I am risking Ph crashes but wouldn't I see lower figures...not 7.4?

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Is there the possibility that your ro membrane is bad? What is the kh of both the ro water and the tank water? There is nothing from what you listed that would impact ph in terms of raising it.

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Andrewtfw said:
Is there the possibility that your ro membrane is bad? What is the kh of both the ro water and the tank water? There is nothing from what you listed that would impact ph in terms of raising it.

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I didn't think about that possibility. That would better explain what you are seeing.
 
I buy my ro water from my LFS. I may need to test their water again. Additionally, I wonder if I need a new test kit. I have heard that after so long the kits expire and become inaccurate. Its weird though, I would think that I would at least show readings below 7.
 
if i may ask, why are you trying so hard to lower the PH, as a more stable PH thats just a little bit out of the shrimps preferred range is a lot less stressful than a fluctuating PH , as with an everchanging PH the animal will be stressed, have a lowered immune system and therefore is more so succeptable to particular diseases. In My Personal Experience shrimps are very fragile in some setups, and a fluctuating PH has the full potential to kill the shrimp

good luck!!
 
Initially my Ph was probably 6.8 and my shrimp were breeding. However I had this nice rock I decided to throw in three tank. Not sure which mineral was in the rock but my Ph sky rocketed. I took it out and did a 80% water change. I have since done plenty of changes with ro water and the Ph has barely dropped. I really want my shrimp to breed as I have tiger blues. The shrimp stopped breeding when the Ph went up. I need some new kits for GH and KH but I simply want them to breed.

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So I just bought 3 new test kits. I bought a new PH, a GH, and KH. From what I understand, KH affects the ability to change PH, but GH is independent and does not affect PH. Here are the new readings:

ph - 7.0
GH - 8 degrees/143.2ppm
KH - 2 degrees/35.8ppm

So my GH is a little high for shrimp breeding but the other 2 are perfect. i could push KH up a degree.

Previously I was getting much higher readings for pH. I decided to run a test with the old kit and the new one. The new one again read 7.0 while the old one read 7.6:confused: So either the tests are inaccurate or they expire. I noticed the new test (API) had an expiration date printed on it. My old one does not. However, all of my tests have batch numbers. Does anyone know how to interpret the batch numbers to determine how old the test kit is?
 
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