Driftwood HELP!

C

Candycat21

Senior Member
Dec 17, 2004
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Charlotte, NC
Hi guys,

Okay here's my dilema. I have a large piece of driftwood in my tank right now. I know that driftwood will lower the pH, but my question is this...is there a certain type/kind of driftwood that won't alter my pH or at least not lower it to the extreme? I like my pH to be about 7.2-7.4 and right now it's way down at 6.0!!!!!! My fish are all doing great and show no signs of stress, but i want to keep my pH stable and avoid the possibility of stressing out my fish.
My tap water measures at 7.2, so I've never had to adjust the pH til now. I do frequent 5-10 % water changes every other day just to keep my pH up.
The driftwood I have is either african or malaysian.
PLease Help! Any suggestions would be great!!!
Thanks a bunch!
Candice
 
You could just go to your LFS and get something to bring it up. Just remember do it slowly over the next couple days. Dont throw the the full amount in at once. Most fish can survive in a wide range of ph. Its a fast change to the scale that will kill them. You can also just leave it and it will settle out after awhile then go back up to your normal level.
 
Before going to the LFS and buying stuff to lower the pH, find out how hard or soft the water is. Hard water is harder to adjust the pH, soft water is easier to adjust the pH. There are others here who can explain the ins and outs of water chemistry much better than I can. In my experience, things that work slowly and gradually are more stable than chemical additives I buy from the LFS. (in my case, the water was very very soft, and the pH was fluctuating all over the place, but I read a post here by ArkyLady about adding crushed coral to the filter, and that has nicely stablized my GH and KH and pH as well, much better than the various buffers the LFS sold me.)
 
I have somewhat hard tap water 7.5 and after I recently added a piece of driftwood it has slowly softened my water a bit to 6.8 which is what I wanted with the fish I have in it.
 
Well, my tap water pH is about 7.2 - 7.4 which is what i like my pH to stay at. My water is also very soft..about 3dgh(i think thats how you write it) or 0-50 ppm
Since I've added the driftwood, it's lowered my pH to 6.0
I add pH increaser when I do a water change to gradually bring it back up, but it still just goes right back down to 6.0 I don't want to have to do a water change everyday just to get he pH adjusted. Anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do? Should I just take the wood out and get an artificial piece or what?
The pH is the only problem I'm having, everything and everyone...being my fish...are doing great!
 
crushed coral is your answer

Here's a link to a helpful article about crushed coral. This is the post that I referred to above.

Before adding the crushed coral, the KH and GH registered betwen 0 and 2 degrees each, with the pH bouncing around wildly. I have three pieces of driftwood in the tank, which would tend to pull down the pH a bit. In the 50 gallon tank, I put three Tablespoons of crushed coral in a nylon baggie (cut from a pair of nylons) into the filter.

10 days later, the KH is 5 degrees, the GH is 7 degrees, the pH is 7.4 and all readings have been stable (I'm testing daily.) The pH is a little higher than I would like, but I'm about to embark on a DIY CO2 injection project, which I expect to bring the pH down a little bit- my fish would generally prefer 6.8 to 7.0.


Hope this helps.
 
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