Buffering? What buffering?

Watcher74

Watcher74

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Feb 5, 2004
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I finally got around to picking up a Carbonate Hardness test and it doesn't look good.

2 dKH...................

........urm..........that's not good. I tested the tank water twice and the tap water once. All with identical results.

Ammonia tested 0
Nitrite tested 0
Nitrate tested 15
PH tested 7.0
GH tested 4 dGH

So my PH is fine and has remained stable for many months.

What's a good way to help buffer my tank without changing the PH?

Any ideas?
 
if you want to increase your hardness you can use crushed coral, or you can use shells in the tank. Or a rock that will buffer can not think of any off top of head but I know there are some.

john
 
Won't crushed coral or shells increase my PH? I'm pretty sure it will......
 
Won't crushed coral or shells increase my PH? I'm pretty sure it will......
Click to expand...

Yes it will, how much would be an experiment of course, but any addition to KH will increase PH as well I would bet you could get to 3+ ppm without going much over 7.4 though 2 could probably keep it stable assuming everything else is balanced and you maintenance routine is impeccable. My observation (scientist may prove me wrong) is that the ph doesn't dive hard untill the KH is gone. however if you are at 2, it could go very quickly I know in my tank if it doesn't stay above four it won't go all week without testing zero.
 
I'm pretty sure that there are people that have tap water that will give 7.0 PH and a higher KH than mine.

In other words, if there was no way to raise my buffering capacity without raising my PH then ALL tanks with a PH of 7.0 would have 2 dKH.

So what can I add that will raise my KH but not my PH?
 
If I'm not mistaken, People who have 7 for ph and high KH have huge amounts of CO2 in the water. CO2 lowers PH so high kh and high ph can be counteracted by high co2. I have researched this extensively and the only two ways to effectively bring down PH ( in a tank with fish in it) are to lower the KH and raise the co2 levels. This is consitant to an extent that people can calculate their co2 levels by comparing KH and ph.
 
Whatever you do (crushed coral will work but you have to be careful with amounts), just make sure you know what you're doing ahead of time. To have things bouncing about wildly would not be good, obviously:)

Besides, if you're not injecting CO2 and dont have any specific reason why you need harder water, it would be better to have lower kH/gH values that to mess with things without knowing too much about it:)

(Mostly saying this for any total beginners that might be reading this...)

I know what you mean, though. I've got 2.2 degrees kH.
 
In and of itself, 2 degrees of KH isn't a problem, especially, as daveedka noted, you have good maintenance routines. The big problem is that you don't have much margin for error, should there be some change that acidifies your tank (e.g., addition of driftwood, dead fish rotting while you're on vacation, gradual increase in fish waste as they get larger). Personally, I'm more comfortable with something in the 3 or higher range.

Adding a bit of KH may drive up your pH. There is some relation between the two of them -- I confess I don't know it (where are RTR or happychem when you need a quick chemistry lesson?). I expect there are other variables that affect the ph-KH relationship, though, so it's probably more than a simple, linear bivariate correlation. I do know that you can bump up KH a bit without raising pH too much. Just put a tablespoon of crushed coral in a filter bag or nylon stocking and throw it into your filter. It will dissolve slowly and raise your KH (and pH, a bit). The nice thing about this method is that the change is pretty gradual, so you can remove some if you're reaching your target (e.g., 3 dKH) or add more if you plateau before you get there. It's also a good method because if something does start to acidify your tank (see afore-mentioned calamities), there is a source of KH replenishment already in the tank to guard against pH crash.

If you're at pH of 7 with 2 dKH, I bet you can get to 3 degrees KH with only a .2 or .3 increase in pH, which is pretty meaningless. It's certainly a good trade off.

HTH, and let's hope the chemistry-literate will be here to give us the straight poop.

Jim
 
Those are very good replies by all three of you.

Very good stuff. I'm just now expanding into the GH and KH points of view of aquaria and am very impressed.

Thanks for the help.
 
For more than you want to know:

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/CO2/kh-ph-co2-chart.html

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/CO2/kh-ph-co2.html

and of course:

http://www.tomgriffin.com/aquasource/hardwater.shtml

In fact, your pH/KH as read imply that there are some quantity of additional acid(s) in your tank, as those numbers (with an assumption of lab level accuracy -;) ) would read a CO2 of about 6ppm - rather high for air equilibrium, but possible with minimal surface disruption and some significant but not overloaded number or mass of fish.
 
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