Raising PH

[luvmycichlids]

What is the best natural method at raising the PH in my community tank? Right now my water is very acidic and I want to adjust the water just a few points towards a more neutral PH level without causing harm to my fish. I currently have fish that do best with acidic levels (neons, rams, oto cats & kulhi loach).

I've read coral will work but I don't know how much to use for only raising levels a small amount.

[ossnap]

Not many ways that I know of to do it naturally. You can use aragonite reef sand and TX holey rock to help buffer PH. Or, you can add a little bit of baking soda when doing water changes.

[luvmycichlids]

Would the aragonite reef sand or holey rock be too sharp for my Kulhi loaches? I read some about baking soda but I had not ever heard of anyone actually using it or what their results were. Have you tried the baking soda Ossnap? If so how much was used and was it a gradual increase or immediate? Wondering if any particular type of live plant would increase levels? Any idea?

[ossnap]

I don't think any plants will help raise PH. At least, I've never heard of any. I do not think the TX holey rock, or the reef sand will be a problem for the Kuhli's. Myself, I have not personally used the baking soda. My PH is about 7.8-8.0 out of my tap and my fish seem to do fine with that. I've read about lots of people using it to raise PH for African Cichlid tanks though. Lots of Tropheus keepers routinely use it. You can probably do a search for "Tropheus + Baking Soda" and get an idea on measurements, etc.

[mlportersr]

A good way I have found is to get a cuttlebone from a local pet shop (look in the bird section). They are 100% aragonite, easier to handle than sand and cheap. The thing to remember is that carbonate is consumed by numerous things in your tank so over time any tank will drift towards the acidic. Plants need a lot of carbon, and snails need the calcium to build their shells.

Mike...

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[luvmycichlids]

Sounds nice & easy! Buried under the gravel maybe to weight it down or is there a better method at securing the cuttle bone for it doesn't float? Any idea as to what the approximate cuttle bone replacement time frame would be?

[mlportersr]

You can let it float, or stick it in your filter. It's real easy to tell when the old bone is exhausted: it will be gone. Over time a cuttlebone will dissolve completely.

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[blacksmith37]

I have used a handful of aragonite gravel in an HOB or canister filter, It won't move the pH too much. Natural waters have a lot of buffering, so it take a lot of stuff like baking soda to do much change - but then suddenly the pH moves.
When i was a boy in chemistry class , I calculated I need like 0.4 ml of concentrated nitric to move 50 gal of pH 7.4 to 6.7 ( for "pure" water. ). After adding 5 ml of nitric moved the pH only to 7.0 in real water, ( Chicago- Lake Michigan water) I learned about buffering.

[CROCN]

I have one big piece of TX Holey rock and a few smaller ones. Willing to sell them to you, it will help out both of us since I am trying to raise money for my classroom.

[luvmycichlids]

Thanks for the offer Crocn but the Cuttlebone seems to be doing the trick so I'm going to pass on the Texas Holey Rock. 😀

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