Low pH--how to raise it?

S

shamrock62081

AC Members
Nov 27, 2005
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0
1
43
St. Louis
Help! I'm having a horrible time getting my pH up in my 20 gallon. It's currently pretty acidic (around 5.0), and I want to get it closer to neutral. I have one pearl gourami, a java fern, and an amazon sword, and have taken all of the decorations out. No matter how many water changes I do, it always goes back down. It seems that all of the products for raising the pH say not to use with live plants. Any suggestions on how to safely raise my pH and keep it around 7? Below I've listed the water conditions... The tap water has from 7.5 this past summer to 9.0 right now.

Aquarium:
KH 1
GH 12
pH 5.0

Tap Water:
KH 5
GH 11
pH 9.0

THANKS!
 
Just start doing more waterchanges. Do a few 10-20% waterchanges over the week to replenish the kH in the tank. One 20% waterchange per day until you get the pH back to 7. I assume this is an older tank which had a pH crash.
 
shamrock62081 said:
Aquarium:
KH 1
GH 12
pH 5.0

Tap Water:
KH 5
GH 11
pH 9.0

THANKS!
Click to expand...

Did you slack off in doing water changes for a long time? I don't see how your tap water could be so high in PH and KH and so low in your tank.KH gets used up but not that quickly,I'd kill for a KH of 5.

Those readings out of your tap,are they after the water has sat for 24 hours or straight from the tap? If they are straight from the tap then sit a glass of water out for 24 hours and retest,then repost.
 
What they said.

Sounds like you are not doing weekly water changes. You really have to keep your tank as close to your tap water as possible and that means changing out at least 25% of the water weekly.

Do a few waterchanges over the course of a week or so and you'll see a definite improvement.

Have you tested the tank water recently for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates?

Roan
 
My nitrates, nitrites and ammonia concentrations are very low. I had missed a couple water changes over the holidays while I was out of town. I hadn't let the tapwater set before I tested it. I'll do that and see what the results are tomorrow afternoon. Thanks!
 
for starters be careful with water changes. Do multiple low volume changes to slowly correct the situation. My personal weapon of choice is 10-20% twice a day. rapidly changing things can cause trouble. once you get tap and tank close to the same then larger volume water changes are fine. For general maintewnance I do 50-70% weekly.

Are you injecting Co2 ? Or did the first drop on your Kh test turn the water Yellow? If the first drop turned the water then your Kh is 0. It is difficult to have a Kh of 1 and a pH of 5.0. It is not at all difficult to have a KH of 0 and a pH of 5.0. a Kh of 1 degree without co2 injection will put your pH at roughly 7.0
Your tap of 5 Kh is excellent IMO, that water should test in the range of 7.8 if no non carbonate buffers are in play.

RTR wrote a good article on OTS (Old tank syndrome) and a second one on water changes to correct OTS. both will be worth your time to read, as this is probably the situation you are in.

http://www.thepufferforum.com/articles/small/ots.html

http://www.thepufferforum.com/articles/water/otswater.html

Dave
 
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