dbrown918

If you add baking soda to raise the pH, does it also raise the kH and help to keep the pH more stable later on? Or do you have to keep adding it every day? If it is every week I wouldn't mind, but every day would be tedious to say the least.

grump

Hi why do you need to raise your ph in the first place....are the fish not acting right...

If it has to be raised there are natural ways to do it like crush coral and lavarock will raise it for you...

grump

I would think that if your fish seem to be fine and the PH is stable then you will be fine too leave it....If your Aquarium Info is up to date and it is 6.8 it should be fine...You don't want to start to play with it and get it unstable...

Angela_96

Let it be. Mucking witht he ph will only cause the tank to be unstable. Now if you needed a high ph like for african cichlids I would use crushed coral and or limestone. But for guppies? I think that the ph is great.

dbrown918

The info is not up to date, sorry. The pH is 6.0 or less, with 0 KH.

Butterfly

How are your fish acting? If they seem happy I personally wouldn't bother it. the unstable fluctuations will do more harm than anything.
That said here is a PH/kH calculator. Remember to change it very slowly and test it frequently.
Carol

AlyeskaGirl

The Relationship Between pH and kH
"kH is a measurement of the carbonate hardness of your water. In other words, it measures the concentration of carbonate and bicarbonate ions in your aquarium. kH also indicates your water’s buffering capacity – your water’s ability to neutralize added acids without significantly changing the pH. Therefore, a higher kH corresponds to a more stable pH in your aquarium and a lower kH can correspond to large swings in the pH. Generally, if your kH is below 4.5 odH, you need to closely monitor your pH for large changes. You will also need to be more consistent in your water changes as the low kH will cause the pH in your aquarium to consistently drop with time. Frequent water changes are the best way to keep the pH up to an appropriate level."

Source link: http://www.ratemyfishtank.com/articles/107

pepetj

Baking soda (NaHCO3) will bring up KH; and as a consequence of that raise, your pH will also rise. However it is also important to address your GH, even if you have no plants, since the mineral traces that make up GH are essential for fish health.

Maybe you fell behind in tank maintenance (I had too: organic waste does more than building up ammonia: as more bacteria decompose them, trace minerals are removed form the water column) or your maybe your bio-load is exceeding the tank volume and depleting trace minerals too fast (I had that one also, specially with big fish).

In my honest opinion your tank is at the edge of a pH crash, I would consider using baking soda carefully. Keep in mind it is your responsibility to do this right and you are doing this at your own risk.

Using Baking Soda to slowly raise KH, you need:
A) a pinch of baking soda,
B) at least five gallons of R/O processed drinking water (low mineral content drinking water should work fine)
C) Minimize errors of measurement: Rinse the vial and cap in water from the sample to remove any previous solids present. Please use 10ml samples to add your KH reagent drops one by one; do not touch the surfaces of the vial and cap that will come in contact with the sample and reagent. Again, add one drop of reagent at a time, place the cap, shake a bit, observe the color. Remember that you may see when the color is about to change; the measure should include the count of the drop that actually made the reagent color change distinctively. Divide by two. This is your DKH.

Instructions:
1) Aim at 5.0dKH Take two gallons of water from your tank (it's a 10gal right?) and add a tiny tiny bit of baking soda (to these two gallons not the tank!). Stir well and measure at least three or four times say 5 minutes apart. Either dilute with R/O or de-mineralized drinking water or add another pinch of baking soda. Aim at 5.0dKH (if you get 4.5, 5.0 or 5.5 go to step 2).

2) Aim at 2.5dKH Take two more gallons out of your tank and mix it with the (now buffered water at around 5.0dKH). Stir, measure two or three times, five minutes apart. Aim at 2.5dKH.

3) Adjust to 2.5dKH Mix with R/O processed (or low mineral content) drinking water until you get, by trial and error (going back and forth if needed be) 2.5dKH. Set apart 4 gallons of this water with 2.5dKH.

3) Now you have aprox. 6 gallons of water in your tank with 0dKH. Add the 4 gallons of 2.5dKH water and expect readings to be at 0.5, 1.0 or 1.5dKH, due to probable errors (say your tank real water volume is not exactly 10gallons, which is likely the case). Confirm the dKH of your tank by performing two or three measurements. Write down this dKH reading with the time and date.

4) Wait at least 2 hours, (even better until early morning) to measure pH (water agitation due to all the handling will give false elevated readings of pH). Write down this pH reading with its time and day

Note that your tank's pH may stay at 6.0, but your KH should be around 40% of 2.5dKH (0.4*2.5*17.9 = 17.9ppm) so should expect readings of 0.5, 1.0 or 1.5 dKH.

5) Keep doing this until 3.5dKH is reached Do the same tomorrow, and raise your KH another bit. In a matter of three or four days of doing this, you should have around 3 to 3.5dKH and a still slightly acidic pH (say 6.5, 6.8) depending on the other several variables that correlate with pH.

6) Once you get to the 3.5dKH mark your tank should be risk-free of pH crash. In a couple of days go on with regular water change (20% with substrate vacuum of half the tank weekly) and it should either remain the same or find a point of equilibrium according to your particular setting. Once you do a water change measure both GH and KH. If you manage to keep GH at or above 5.5 and KH at or above 3.5 I would consider your tank safe as far as pH crash is concerned.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

Shawnie

baking soda is great to do all those things, but its an unstable source and you need to add it continuously to the tank or it will crash....not to mention it fluctuates too much for my liking ....stable is the key even if it is low....im with the others on the crushed coral, limestone, or even peat moss ...

aquarist48

Good morning Shawnie....as far as filtering through peatmoss....Doesn't it lower pH instead of increasing it?

Shawnie

indeed I have that backwards! LOL thank goodness you are on your toes!

aquarist48

Glad to help

Angela_96

Off topic, the peatmoss that you can buy in hardware stores is it aquarium safe? How stable is the ph change?

dbrown918

Here's the thing, I was actually asking for my new 20 gallon tank which will be lightly planted with java moss, java fern, hornwort, and anubias barteri. There are no fish in it yet. I was asking because my source of water has 0dKH and 120ppm GH. The pH is either 6.0 exactly or lower, im guessing lower though. The reason I am asking is because with the lack of buffer in my 10 gallon it has caused pH swing problems and I've lost 3 fish in the last 2 weeks. Now I don't know if that was from the pH swings or from where I got them, but it still wasn't pleasant. I just wanted to know if adding baking soda will give my source water a little kick with buffer so that my pH swings aren't so volatile, and if so, do I need to add it just once or every time I do a water change?

aquarist48

The peat moss has to be "organic". No chemicals or dyes in it at all. It's been my experience the longer you leave it in the tank the lower the pH will drop over time. Personally I wouldn't leave it in there as a permanent solution.

Shawnie

heres a good link in case you havent seen it yet
http://www.ratemyfishtank.com/articles/107

● Baking soda – Adding baking soda will raise the pH, but remember that this will need to be constantly added (you cannot just add it once and forget about it). You also need to be careful not to add too much at one time and cause a severe spike as this could kill your fish. It is best to gradually adjust the pH if you decide it must be adjusted. A general rule is 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons. Dissolve the baking soda in some water before adding it to the tank. Also remember that the above ratio of 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons is just a rule of thumb. For your specific case, take it slowly so you do not shock or kill your fish.

dbrown918

Cool, thanks!

AlyeskaGirl

My pH out of my tap is 6.4 after it sits for an hour. Its lower then that if I just test it right then and there. I use clam shells from my beach...boiled first......I test the pH every 3 days to see if it is flucuating.....doing frequent water changes is also another way to keep the pH up for the ones that have acidic water with buffering that doesn't last long. I also use baking soda at times....I start with 1/4 teaspoon....for a pH of 6.4 in my 55 gallon....to slowly raise up to around 6.8....or just doing small frequent water changes will help..... like I said above......doing that will replenish the buffering.

Testing the pH right out of the tap is not the 'true' pH reading.

I've read that having a pH of 6 or lower will kill off the beneficial bacteria.

dbrown918

I hear you on that alyeska! If you want the true pH reading of my tap water I know what it is. I left it out for 2 days in a cup then tested it to see if I just needed to age the water first, but the pH was still only reading 6 on my color chart. And as for buffering, I have 0 in my tap water, tested that too. So basically, I have the worst source water possible...

catfishtabbi

Seachem makes ph stable,anyone think this could help?

AlyeskaGirl

Hmmmm.....interesting. Try putting some crushed coral in your filter if have room. Stick it in a mesh bag or nylon stocking that hasn't been washed.