Sea Salt and baking soda to raise P.H?

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dmm28

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Nov 1, 2008
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I went into my LFS and was pricing things out for my new cichlid tank. I was looking at P.H up and the guy at the store says " Don't waste your money on that just use sea salt and baking soda." I didn't really pursue it any further from him as I was just pricing things out.

Anyone ever heard of this before or done this?
 

Lupin

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Sea salt as in marine salt? There is a big difference between the actual cichlid mineral salts and marine salt but you do not need anything except table salt for ich. Baking soda does increase hardness levels which help stabilize the pH. Use crushed corals, marble chips or plaster of Paris blocks and place them in your filter. That should help if you have problems with pH lowering. You should also measure your KH and GH to determine why your pH is lowering.
 

efors

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Use crushed corals, marble chips or plaster of Paris blocks and place them in your filter. That should help if you have problems with pH lowering. You should also measure your KH and GH to determine why your pH is lowering.
Put a nylon mesh with crushed coral in your filter as Lupin said and that should be enough for a stable pH for your cichlids.
 

Lupin

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anyone know what the crushed coral will keep the ph at
Depends on the amount of crushed corals you are using. What are your hardness levels? It is basically trial and error to determine how much crushed corals you need.
 

DrNo

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Using an aragonite substrate is another option that can stabilize pH. Crushed coral is always a great option. As suggested above, measuring your GH and KH is a good next step. To answer your original question, yes, salts are used. Which to use and in what quantity however is more a matter of trial-and-error. In general:

Epsom salt increases GH and does not significantly alter pH or KH.

Baking soda increases both pH and KH. It doesn't alter GH as dramatically.

Commerically available cichlid salts generally increase all three parameters but to a lesser degree than either straight baking soda or Epsom salt.

I'm not sure what he meant by "sea salt". Based on your KH and GH readings and your desired water parameters, you can experiment to find the right amounts to add. Understand that with each water change, these solutes will be removed. As a result, you may need to add them back into the tank as some percentage corresponding to the water volume removed. You may be golden simply by using coral for example.... but you won't know until you measure your water parameters.
 

Pittbull

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Apr 14, 2007
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Yeah like all above said plus do not use sea salt aka marine salt would not be a good ideal maybe talk to him again and see what he meant about sea salt or if he meant cichlid salt..
 

Hooked Newbie

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I agree with the above posts and would venture to say that your LFS employee hasn't a clue. You said cichlid tank... what type of cichlids? What size tank? What stocking are you looking for? Cycled? I think we're all thinking Africans automatically, but I want to be sure.
 

excuzzzeme

Stroke Survivor '05
I have hard well water with a modestly low PH (6.4 - 6.7) I do not add anything to my water nor do I use carbon. I have Africans (Malawi) and CA/SA cichlids. To date I have had no problems or unexplained deaths and reproduction rates are fine.
 
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