Alkaline Buffer

Has anyone used Seachem’s alkaline buffer? My planted tank with livebearers is much too low kh and the ph keeps drifting down. I read livebearers prefer high kh and ph of 7.8 ish. So I got the alkaline buffer and some crushed corals. But.... these instructions are hard. They’re also telling me to use both alkaline and acid buffers.

I have a 10 gallon tank with a kh of 80 and ph of 6.8 and I need a kh of over 150 and a ph of 7.8.

I will be doing 1 gallon water changes with the buffer to SLOWLY raise it. My usual water change is 3 gallons but I want SLOW changes.

Can anyone tell me how much alkaline buffer to use for 1 gallon???

 

Dosing should be in the instructions. It may talk in units of dKH which is just KH ppm divided by 17.9. Just dose it at the same time you dechlorinate your water. You can basically add it to your water until you have a KH of around 145 to 215 ppm.

Crushed coral works slowly. So using alkaline buffer will work faster. I personally prefer this for more stable parameters after water changes.

As for slowly adjusting the KH, good idea. That said, it might be easiest to just dose the tank directly with the akaline buffer. Slowly increase your KH by some amount every two hours until it's at the desired KH is achieved. Just add the powder to a tiny amount of water (dechlorinated or tank water) so it dissolves and put it in the tank. Then going forward, just match these parameters when you're doing water changes. When doing top offs for evaporation, use dechlorinated water without adding Alkaline Buffer.

 

Dosing should be in the instructions. It may talk in units of dKH which is just KH ppm divided by 17.9. Just dose it at the same time you dechlorinate your water. You can basically add it to your water until you have a KH of around 145 to 215 ppm.

Crushed coral works slowly. So using alkaline buffer will work faster. I personally prefer this for more stable parameters after water changes.

As for slowly adjusting the KH, good idea. That said, it might be easiest to just dose the tank directly with the akaline buffer. Slowly increase your KH by some amount every two hours until it's at the desired KH is achieved. Just add the powder to a tiny amount of water (dechlorinated or tank water) so it dissolves and put it in the tank. Then going forward, just match these parameters when you're doing water changes. When doing top offs for evaporation, use dechlorinated water without adding Alkaline Buffer.

My problem with the dosing instructions on the bottle is that it says 1 teaspoon for 20 gallons. I could do half a teaspoon for my whole tank, but I was planning on doing it 1 gallon change at a time so it doesn’t increase too quickly. You think dosing 1/2 tsp in the whole tank won’t be too much for my fish?

 

First, you're not dosing starting at 0 KH since you're using tap water, not RO water. So since you're starting at basically a KH of 1.6 meq/L and want to get to 3 meq/L you need to add .7 teaspoons to get to 150 ppm KH (aka 3 meq/L).

Google these conversions if you need to. Here's the dosing calculator and measurement conversion calculator I used.

Alkalinity Conversion Calculator

Seachem - Alkaline Buffer

Here's how I would address your problem:

1. Measure .7 teaspoons of Alkaline Buffer and set it aside.
2. Add a small amount of that .7 teaspoons to the tank. Basically add a tiny pinch to a bit of water, mix it around, and put it in tank.
3. Keep doing this every couple hours until it's all in the tank.
4. Test your KH. After doing this, it should be at 150 ppm.

Going forward, add Alkaline Buffer to the new water when you're doing water changes. You can calculate how much you'll need. But if you're doing 3 gallon water changes, you'll likely need to use .2 teaspoons to keep the water at 150 ppm KH.

Go ahead and play with the doses. Those two links I sent you allow you to do all the match and calculate how much Alkaline Buffer to use.

 

First, you're not dosing starting at 0 KH since you're using tap water, not RO water. So since you're starting at basically a KH of 1.6 meq/L and want to get to 3 meq/L you need to add .7 teaspoons to get to 150 ppm KH (aka 3 meq/L).

Google these conversions if you need to. Here's the dosing calculator and measurement conversion calculator I used.

Alkalinity Conversion Calculator

Seachem - Alkaline Buffer

Here's how I would address your problem:

1. Measure .7 teaspoons of Alkaline Buffer and set it aside.
2. Add a small amount of that .7 teaspoons to the tank. Basically add a tiny pinch to a bit of water, mix it around, and put it in tank.
3. Keep doing this every couple hours until it's all in the tank.
4. Test your KH. After doing this, it should be at 150 ppm.

Going forward, add Alkaline Buffer to the new water when you're doing water changes. You can calculate how much you'll need. But if you're doing 3 gallon water changes, you'll likely need to use .2 teaspoons to keep the water at 150 ppm KH.

Go ahead and play with the doses. Those two links I sent you allow you to do all the match and calculate how much Alkaline Buffer to use.

Thanks! I’ve never been the best at conversions :\ 0.2 teaspoons is a bit hard to measure. You think adding just a pinch for each water change would be fine? If I need it really specific I’ll try to buy something that measures it accurately..

 

Those links were extremely helpful thank you!!

 

Thanks! I’ve never been the best at conversions :\ 0.2 teaspoons is a bit hard to measure. You think adding just a pinch for each water change would be fine? If I need it really specific I’ll try to buy something that measures it accurately..

Ya it is hard to measure. What's your smallest measuring spoon? I know I have a 1/2 teaspoon one at home. So I'd basically use a bit under half of the powder I can measure.

But yes, just adding a pinch is fine when formulating new water for water changes. Do an educated guess based on your smallest measuring spoon. Then just test the KH before adding it to the tank. If the KH is too high, dump out some and add more tap water. But always remember to dechlorinate!