any idea for increasing pH?

[davescube]

Hi, I have just get my pH tested and it reads as low as 5.0
It used to be 6.0 before I put in 2 driftwood and 2 lavarock, a bad idea isnt it? I thought lavarock increases pH so I am wrong.

Any action that I should take? in a safe way..

 

[Cory Keeper]

Two words, Crushed Coral. I use it to up my PH to help my hundreds of MTS.

 

[Fishy_Fun]

You could add crushed coral and if that doesn't increase it enough you could add (but very slowly over a weeks time)some baking soda

 

[davescube]

How much crushed coral do I need? I need my pH to be around 7.0
I can put the Crushed coral in the canister filter,cant I?

 

[vampie]

Yes, crushed coral can be put in your canister. And FYI, lava rock is inert, so no PH effect.

 

[msjinkzd]

What is your maintenance routine? Has anything else changed to be causing the drop in pH? What is your water hardness? I,too, would recommend crushed coral in a media bag added to your filter. You have to monitor it, as it will dissolve over time and will need replenishing. The crushed coral will buffer the hardness, raising your pH and making it more stable. Another option would be to treat water with cc in a seperate container and mix is with tap in order to gain a desired pH/hardness level with consistency.

 

[MsPuff]

I've used baking soda to raise Ph when I had cichlids and the aragonite sand I used didn't quite do the trick.

 

[Star_Rider]

aragonite and or crushed coral will need time to raise the pH..these do so by slowly leaching calcium carbonate from shells / shells in the substrate.

 

[jm1212]

baking soda is a temporary fix. the best way is to add some crushed coral to the filter

 

[DAVIDFBT]

You could also use crusjed coral to raise the ph for African Cichlids.