pH crash

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platypus60

AC Members
Nov 6, 2005
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I knew that my city water is subject to pH crashes, so I use crushed coral in the filter. Howerever, the small amount I had in there has been there a long time.

I started grad school, which has been intense. The tank has not been getting enough attention. pH has taken a nosedive, and I want to save my fish.

I need to understand the effects of crushed coral. Does it stabilize the current pH, or does it tend to get the water closer to pH 7?

I need to raise the pH slowly. My tap is above 7, my poor fishies are surviving in pH 5! My tap gets acidic when it sits around. That's why I kept the coral in there. But I messed up. Didn't monitor and the coral got used up.

How to fix!?
 
when you come home from grad school each day, do a quick 10% water change.

do this for a week or two.

the crushed coral will raise the pH of the water, and it will also buffer the water in the tank that makes it less likely to crash in terms of pH.

I did the same thing when I was at university. I still have a bundle of crushed coral in my powerfilters to this day.

fish waste is acidic and will tend to drop the pH over time especially if you have large fish and are 'neglecting' your water changes because of extreme workload like I did

I too used to get pH crashes over the course of a week only on my big tanks with big fish.
 
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also don't forget to replace your crushed coral.

Crushed coral is mainly calcium. And over time calcium ions are released. The calcium ions are what buffer the pH (Hydrogen potential). It won't necessarily get your pH closer to 7, it just raises pH over time.
 
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