Baking soda for pH?

you can also use sandstone to raise pH... that is not advised tho
 
omordn said:
One thing I've learned since being in this aquarium hobby is to not mess around too much with the pH. Personally, I don't like adding any type of chemicals to my tank. I think trying to lower your pH is more hazardous to your tank than trying to increase it. If you're trying to lower it too I would advise you to use some bogwood. There are other natural ways to increase your pH levels too.
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:iagree:

What is your pH now and do you want to raise it?

KarlTh said:
It does raise pH, but the reason for using it is to raise KH, which is far more important.
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Yep.
 
I don’t mean to highjhack this thread, but maybe my question can help a little bit..

In my tank, the pH and KH are very low at 6.2 and 3. Its a planted tank, and I do not know what is causing my ph to remain so low, since water out of the tap is at 7.0 and kh of 5. Also, my tank water params. were at this level before I added my piece of driftwood, so I know that’s not the cause.[FONT=&quot]
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Soon I want to add CO2, and I know this makes pH go down if you don’t have enough KH to balance it. So would I be correct to assume that if I add the right amounts of baking soda and CO2, then perhaps my pH will not go down, but will stay the same?
 
It makes the pH go down anyway; the reason for raising the KH before injecting CO2 is to give the pH a higher starting point to drop from. This is a frequently misunderstood point.

KH dropping is usually down, I'm afraid, to one or more of overfeeding, overcrowding or inadequate water changes.
 
melissa3 said:
I don’t mean to highjhack this thread, but maybe my question can help a little bit..

In my tank, the pH and KH are very low at 6.2 and 3. Its a planted tank, and I do not know what is causing my ph to remain so low, since water out of the tap is at 7.0 and kh of 5. Also, my tank water params. were at this level before I added my piece of driftwood, so I know that’s not the cause.[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
Soon I want to add CO2, and I know this makes pH go down if you don’t have enough KH to balance it. So would I be correct to assume that if I add the right amounts of baking soda and CO2, then perhaps my pH will not go down, but will stay the same?
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Are you testing this right away or after 24 hours? Co2 will gas off and cause the pH to drop naturally....
 
CO2 gassing off causes pH to rise because it's acidic; therefore losing it makes the water more alkaline.
 
i test the water right before and right after a WC and the difference is about .2 But then after a day it drops down to 6.2 again.

I do weekly water changes of about 10%. Its a 29 gal tank with 2 angels, 6 cardinals and 3 SAE's. Also, I just added a canister filter this week, in addition to the HOB ( I had 2 running but just removed one to make room for the canister.)

So here's another question - Say I did 20% WC's a day for a week. Would this eventually bring my tank water up to the same parameters as my tap water (which is 7.0 and 5KH) or would it not make any difference?
 
Filters can't make up for water changes - they do different things. I'd try doing bigger changes. 10% is very small.
 
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