henward Posted January 21, 2013 Report Share Posted January 21, 2013 oyster shells, aragonite and Baking soda. what do you prefer to buffer the water to keep it more stable? i am thinking oyster shells or aragonite in the sump added slowly to stablise the ph from fish waste affecting the ph of the water... feedback would be good:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
si_sphinx Posted January 21, 2013 Report Share Posted January 21, 2013 I have always used Oyster grit/shell. Coral rock also keeps it around 8.1. Well it did in my cichlid tanks, I only had the coral rock and no other scaping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smidey Posted January 21, 2013 Report Share Posted January 21, 2013 what level of ph you wanting for what fish? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henward Posted January 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 for my aro predator comm, i want the ph to be around 7, same as our tap water. of course it will go down but i dont want it to shoot down. monitoring the ph is key i think. reason is that my aro recently started to get chipped scales. this is a sympton of ph dropping and increasing as i do wc... unstable water conditions, didnt get it before cos the tank volume was 1200litres, not its half. so more prone to swings. anyways, i am thinkin of getting one of these. ph monitor started another topic on the technical question Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted January 22, 2013 Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 I'd try a small quantity of crushed shell in your sump, certainly not a lot or it may end up going the other way. Are you stull using the auto system or doing one big WC weekly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henward Posted January 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 preheating the drum and doing 1 to 2 a week. new set up depends on the house, if i can do the auto changer or do 1 to 2 big ones a week as well. this is i believe where the ph swings are, before it was quite constant with the auto changer as it is the same day in day out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted January 22, 2013 Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 How much is it swinging by? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henward Posted January 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 How much is it swinging by? i tested the water and it was around 6 (low 6) tap water is 7 to 7.2ph. so when i put tap water in there it probably swings it, i just wanted to bring up the ph too. i havent documented in detail yet though, hence why i wanna get a ph monitor, just a display so i can keep an eye on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueether Posted January 22, 2013 Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 I'm using crushed lime stone in my 430L as my pH was dropping below 6, not too much of a problem for my fish but would rise upto around 7 on a w/c and I wanted to keep it more stable. It now sits about 6.8. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henward Posted January 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2013 I think i will get a weipro ph minotor/controller i think i can plug a calcium reactor in to this. would a calcium reactor be more effective in raising ph? example: Ph desired: 6.8 unit turns on at 6.6 calcium reactor then reaises ph to 6.8 and unit turns off. would this work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 23, 2013 Report Share Posted January 23, 2013 The carbonate will raise the pH but the calcium will raise the hardness. Is that likely to be a problem. An automatic water change would be best I think (if the tap water is the pH that you want.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henward Posted January 28, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2013 Hi GUys, ok, i got myself oyster shell and coral rock. But here is what intrigued me. My tank is designed for soft water. in a nutshell. GH is for hardness... whcih is not what i want. KH is carbonate hardness which is for buffering (preventing ph swings) my tap water is 6.9ph. my desired ph is 6.5 to 7 So, oyster shell DOES NOT raise ph.... it increases KH whcih buffers my water... great. DO I NEED CORAL BITS? cos that will increase my GH as well as PH..... So in theory, i can put oyster shell / initially supplemented by baking soda if required to increase KH. then with regular water changes, the ph should balance out at the desired PH. OR should i put SOME coral bits in there? i mean i am sure that putting 200g, 400, 1kg even in a 3000litre system will not make my water 'hard' ... and will still be considered soft, but the ph may be kept better maintained? let me know your thoughts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F15hguy Posted January 29, 2013 Report Share Posted January 29, 2013 do you have large amounts of driftwood in the system??? that will drop both your hardness and pH I always use lime chip as it actively changes pH as well... or you can use standard Baking Soda from the super market to raise both pH and hardness if your tank is designed for soft water (and by that im confused) then why are you making the water hard??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henward Posted January 29, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2013 do you have large amounts of driftwood in the system??? that will drop both your hardness and pH I always use lime chip as it actively changes pH as well... or you can use standard Baking Soda from the super market to raise both pH and hardness if your tank is designed for soft water (and by that im confused) then why are you making the water hard??? no wood at all. the water is too soft nad ph is way way too low just needs to be bumped up a little bit. my oyster shell in a pounch disappeared, crashing ph so i am putting in oyster shell again and was thinking of putting in some coral rock, not too much as i still want the water quite soft. baking soda is good as an extra buffer but i prefer something in the filter that lasts longer and doesnt need to be continually dosed with water changes. i want the tank to maintain close to 7, 6.5 to 7 is ideal for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F15hguy Posted January 29, 2013 Report Share Posted January 29, 2013 why is it crashing??? no wood, most pH crashes are caused by biological material degrading. are you using RO water??? would try lime chip though, stone and water world have it rather cheap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henward Posted January 29, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2013 why is it crashing??? no wood, most pH crashes are caused by biological material degrading. are you using RO water??? would try lime chip though, stone and water world have it rather cheap well, i wouldnt say it crashed, i suppose it was me getting complecent:D thinking the ph is fine. then caught it at a very low ph. i noticed the aro scales started to chip at the edges. This is a symptom of ph swings OR ph too low. and i dont think it was the swing, i think it was the PH being too low. in time it just went down, due to fish waste, i do water changes, but it was probably when i went overseas and had 35 goldfish feeders in there:P but when i checked on oysters to buffer it as i did before, it was all gone, dissolved. nothing tooo major, but i want to know the most efficient way to 'tune' my sump i suppose:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F15hguy Posted January 29, 2013 Report Share Posted January 29, 2013 big sack of lime chip cheap and effective... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henward Posted January 29, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2013 big sack of lime chip cheap and effective... cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueether Posted January 29, 2013 Report Share Posted January 29, 2013 as a rough guide I have about 1 - 1 1/2 cups of crushed limestone in my filter on my 430L native tank with lots of driftwood and the pH sits about 6.8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henward Posted January 29, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2013 i put 300 grams of oyster shell in a stocking bag and put it on the high flow corner of my sump media area. ph is climbed almost 0.50!! just over night, slowly but surely. it is more to buffer, so when i do a water change today/tomorrow, the ph should go up slightly and the shells should help buffer it, problem solved i think! i did get some coral rock still, ill either use some now or save it for new set up, bigger volume may need a tad more buffering. ill incorporate the coral as media Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueether Posted January 30, 2013 Report Share Posted January 30, 2013 keep us posted on how stable it is (and GH/KH) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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