Hi Ira

Just spoke with the guy from the LFS. I said you have south american cichlids. He said your pH should be 7 to 7.2!!!! He charges A$20 for 600 grams. Whatever that means. I personally would not use baking soda unless I know for sure what it does or not does.

John

Yes, I'm aware that's what it should be.

Hi Ira,

I have at this very second a bag of oyster grit that my daughter bought at the local village supermarket for a few dollars.

It's sold as Bird Grit, and is available just about anywhere that doesn't sell spare bulbs for lighthouses

Don't know if it would keep your pH up enough, but is readily available, is clean, and even comes in a plastic bag.

Regards,

Bill (Pegasus)

Hi Ira

My 125l tank keeps the pH quite well after I added the beforementioned salts. My small tank always goes from 7.1 down to 6.5, which does not worry me because when I do a waterchange (20%) with my pH8.2 tapwater it goes back to the 7 or so region. The tapwater here in Melbourne is about 7.6 to 8.3!!!! And the hardness is 3dGH!!!!!!!!!.

Pegasus cannot believe it. Normally high pH means hard water, but, there are exceptions.

John

So, a supermarket might have it? Hmmm, I actually hadn't thought of checking places like Pak n save for them. Tomorrow after work I'll have a look at a few places on the way home.

John, after looking back at my last post, it looks a bit bitchy. Sorry. The end of the weekend always makes me a bit grumpy.

Pegasus, I got a bag of the bird grit. It's finer than I expected. I've got it sitting in a bucket of water, in a bag, with an air stone for circulation. Tomorrow I thought I'd check the PH and see if it made any kind of difference. I'm wondering how much of a restriction it'll make in the water flow, though, it's really fine stuff...Lots of fragments coming off it too.

Hi Ira,

Stuff I have here is pretty fine also, and I can imagine it would tend to turn the water cloudy if it wasn't rinsed first.

Tie it in a bit of old stocking and put it in the filter once its clean.

Be interested to know if it does alter the pH, and how quickly, and by how much

Can't really see it restricting the flow much.

Regards,

Bill (Pegasus)

The water WAS pretty cloudy after sitting in the bucket overnight. Shouldn't be too bad in the tank, at least the filters should be able to filter it out. Looks like after one night the PH was up to 7.7-7.8 from the tap water which is 7.0. So, it definitely has an effect, I only put half of what I have into the bucket, and it doesn't seem like the half will be quite enough, but we'll see. I'll throw it into the filter once I get around to doing the tank tonight, been a bit distracted with other things today.

It "apparently" lifts the pH more readily through the process of water flowing over it, and again "apparently" becomes inaffective after a time, so will need changing.

It does this slowly, unlike the stuff (baking soda) you have been adding.

Your tests may vary once you add it to your filter.

Hopefully it will not be a short term buffer and will stabalize your tank long term, plus be a lot cheaper in the long run

Regards,

Bill (Pegasus)

I put an airstone under it so it'd hopefully move a bit of water through all the crushed shells. If it's enough to raise the PH of the tank by maybe .1-.2 per day with the extra flow of the filter, then I'll be happy. That would about counteract the drop of PH. It was only $8 for about a kilo, so pretty cheap.

Hmmm, PH is up to 7.1 today. Might have a bit too much in the filter. If it's up any more tomorrow I'll take about half out.

At least it seems to be working... YAHHHHHH

I have a similar problem to Ira in regards to pH drop, although not as dramatic. I'm only adding bicarbonate in with the weekly water changes and it seems to hold not too bad. However something that would raise the pH gradually rather than in step changes would be good. This bird grit stuff sounds pretty good. However, I have some unused broken up shells that I was using as a substrate in a sea horse tank that I no longer have. Do any of you guys think that if I put some of them in a filter compartment whether they would do much to increase the pH?. I had previously thought that it probably wouldn't increase it by a lot.

How much do you have? I've only got half a kilo or less in my filter. Well, I'm horrible at judging things like that. Ummm...I'd say throw a handful into the filter and give it a few days, if it's not having enough of effect throw in another handful. I'm assuming it wouldn't be nearly as fine as the bird grit so you'd need more of it obviously...But, I'd say you should get a definite change from a handful or two of your substrate.

I've probably got about 10 kilos of the stuff. Might out soe in a bucket of water and see what it does over a couple of weeks.

Hi Midas

Never used that birds..t. But If you have a cannister filter, fill one compartment. If the grit is smaller than the holes in you basket then wrap it in a nylon stocking. But first wash out the 'dust". Cannot do any harm. And the constant flow of water has more effect than a still-water-environment. Should work.

John

Looks like the PH has settled around 7.1-7.2. Just about perfect, I'd say.

How old is the buffer solution, most brands have a short shelf life before they become unstable.

It was probably expired well before it left the shop.

John,

So I bought the waterproof, automatic calibrating one for $190

Do automatic calibrating pH meters really exist?

ph meters/controllers need regular checking and maintenance.

Your systems holds too much that is dear to you to not double check your readings.

I checked our ph meter on the Paua farm every friday and recalibrated if needed. All meters/controllers had regular checks.

Do automatic calibrating pH meters really exist?

yes they do, My iks computer is automatic calibration.

And what did your iks controller cost you reef?

cool, i can get an automatic calibrating one for about $100. not sure on quality, but i think it's worth a shot at that price.