Is it worth raising PH?

Tazman

I have these in my 75g tank and they act as a buffer as well as they are basically dead coral.

50lbs is what you would be looking at...I actually have more in my tank but 50lb's is probably minimum.

Byron

Agree with 1077, but would use much less. I have just 3 tablespoons in a mesh bag in the filter of each of my 115g and 90g tanks, and it raised the GH by about 3 dGH and the pH went from 5.5 to 7.0 so it takes very little.

29Kilo29

Will do,

Thanks for all the advice!

1077

Byron, do you not still use Seachem equilibrium as well in the tanks mentioned, or just the crushed coral?
Could see where the use of both, would require less of one or the other.
Three tablespoons is right at 1/4 cup, an as mentioned,would be wise to try whatever amount one uses in tub of water to test ,rather than adding to tanks holding fish.
As Byron notes,it may not take much.
I needed mentioned amount to make water suitable for livebearer's(mollies) and 1/4 cup per 20 gal seemed to suit them.

1077

Above is wrong!!
I should have noted 1/4 to 1/2 cup per 20 gal and after going back through this thread and parameter's posted,,Byron is prolly right, in pointing out that it may take much less than the afore mentioned amount's.
Amount I mentioned would be for those who have soft water, as opposed to moderately hard water that OP has posted according to strips.
Do test the water in tub or bucket before using in aquariums holding fish, lest sudden change in chemistry bring more problems than help.

Byron

I am now using both Equilibrium (to raise hardness) and the coral/aragonite (to slightly raise pH) in just two tanks. But I did use just the coral/aragonite for 3-4 months. Like dolomite that I used previously, in a 115g tank with very soft (near zero GH and KH) it only took 3 tablespoons to drive the pH from 5.5 to 7.4, and I can imagine that with a higher pH and GH to begin with this would be even higher. One has to experiment. But to avoid shock to the fish, go slow.

29Kilo29

Hi again,

So I've decided to just change all of the substrate in my aquarium (sick of blue gravel). I've yet to decide what kind, but something along the lines of Caribsea Crushed coral or similar. I just had a couple questions about this though:

First of all would changing all of the gravel to sand cause a high jump in Ph/hardness and shock the fish?
Would changing it cause a mini-cycle?

I was thinking of doing something like dividing the tank into three and changing the substrate one by one - this would be a lot easier as I would not have to take out all the decorations and fish and wouldn't have many buckets of sand laying around as I clean it. Does this sound okay?

Thanks

Byron

Having changed substrates in my tanks several times, my suggestion is to do it all at once. It is much less stress on the fish to move them out to a holding tank and then back. A spare tank will work for this, with the filter from the main tank connected to keep it running, it can just hang in the tank.

I would not worry about the change in GH and pH. Fish are better able to tolerate these than we might think; it is the fluctuation up and down that is trouble. But a rise or drop that stays is not.

On the nitrification cycle, keep the filter running without rinsing it. If there is any wood or rock in the existing tank that you intend to keep in the tank after, keep it wet. Put it in with the fish in the holding tank, or in a pail or container of tank water. The nitrifying bacteria on all these surfaces will remain. Having plants also helps. And this is a case where I would use a bacterial supplement like Seachem's Stability or Tetra's SafeStart; a small bottle, use it up.

Byron.