Agreed, meager water changes every three weeks is definitely not enough for a 29 gallon with that kind of fish stock.
Do 30-50% every week and then if you still have pH troubles, start doing the crushed coral thing.
Reversing low PH... but i cannot afford PH up
- Thread starter punkie pishie
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Agreed, meager water changes every three weeks is definitely not enough for a 29 gallon with that kind of fish stock.
Do 30-50% every week and then if you still have pH troubles, start doing the crushed coral thing.
1. Nitrification uses up the buffer, and pH drops.
2. Lowered pH levels repress the nitrifiers.
3. Ammonia builds up harmlessly, because it is virtually all ionized to NH4.
4. Water changes replenish the buffer, instantly converting ionized NH4 to toxic ammonia.
5. Fishes die of ammonia poisoning, seen as "pH shock."
Don't let this happen! Use some AmQuel before you do those healthy water changes, p.pishie!
2. Lowered pH levels repress the nitrifiers.
3. Ammonia builds up harmlessly, because it is virtually all ionized to NH4.
4. Water changes replenish the buffer, instantly converting ionized NH4 to toxic ammonia.
5. Fishes die of ammonia poisoning, seen as "pH shock."
Don't let this happen! Use some AmQuel before you do those healthy water changes, p.pishie!
Punkie- I hope you have better luck getting just a jar full of crushed coral. We have stingy LFS's here. I had to buy a 15 lb bag for $18. Should last a decade...
Wetman.....its funny you ask that. I'm currently doing probe analyses of limestones and dolomites, and yes most calcite has some mg. In fact its standard procedure for probe analyses that you test for Sr, Mn, Fe, and Mg when you study carbonates. The limestones around here that I'm working on are fairly Mn rich and very Mg rich. All echinoderms precipitate their shells with hi Mg calcite, but it often becomes low mg(standard) calcite after diagenesis. However, we are talking about very low, low percentages here. On what I'm doing, I don't think the total of Fe, Mn, Mg, and Sr are greater then 2% weight oxidie in any sample of calcite.
The above has to be borne in mind.
Most test kits measure both NH3 and NH4+ though, so as long as an ammonia test is done first, and reads 0, then the above scenario will not occur.
