Planning for PH, but it keeps moving

rsn48

Well I got through to one person and he gave me a number to call another person. The one chap I have talked to at the filtration plant says they are boosting PH but he feels it will be between 7 & 8 not 8 or over. The are going to make the water harder, but he wasn't sure how much harder, since our water is so soft.

I will try and contact the other person tomorrow.

Byron

I have an email in for info on this too, no answer yet. On their website it says they have been adding soda ash since 2000, that was what I couldn't remember. To my knowledge it has caused no issues in 10 years; it raises the pH but adds no hardness.

It also says the new plant will add calcium hydroxide (lime) and carbon dioxide. I've asked for clarification and what they expect from this. Wikipedia on this has,

A suspension of fine calcium hydroxide particles in water is called milk of lime. The solution is called lime water and is a medium strength base that reacts violently with acids and attacks many metals in presence of water. It turns milky if carbon dioxide is passed through, due to precipitation of calcium carbonate.

I'm not getting excited over this, until I know more. But putting something in the water that attacks metals doesn't sound like a solution for water to prevent corrosion of metal pipes and such.

Byron.

Angel079

Guys I'm hating to say this now...but non this make any good sense to me. Adding all this stuff will cost your water plant a LOT money to say the least. Upping it by 1 degree alone is a big chuck off of their profit, upping it by 2 degrees even more. Let's face it they're running a bus there they WILL look at these figures.
Using lime wouldn't make any sense to me; they would add stuff to make sure peoples & the cities water lines don't get ate up by the acid so why use lime?
I'd pers really NOT worry about my tanks until such day I take another test of my tap and see a change that could actually harm my fish (thou I'd actually be thrilled is I read anything but ZERO lol to avoid the swings in the new set ups).
So just go on with your new tanks there really, worst case there's 3 other sources you could use for yourself (tank): Being well water; water prepped with peat (since your "new" hardness would be so minimal) and rainwater. I could explain you all these in lengths on end and how I used them for my own tanks but I think that'll bust the OP here lol.

Bottom line: Keep it in mind, maybe test your tap a lil more often then you normally would and just go on with your tank.

rsn48

Thought you'd like to hear the final results of this situation Angel. Most of what I heard was true to an extent. The PH currently has been bumped up to around 7 to 7.5 and sometime in 2013 it will be going to 8 to 8.5 as another phase of the filtration plant is brought into use. Byron got an email confirming what I had heard, but not in the time frame I thought.

The good news for me is that no matter what I do now it will be wrong so I can do anything I want. I want a Ram tank which utilized the PH we had at the time, but now it will go up over time. I'm still going to do the Ram tank but I will have to fight PH in 2013. If I get fish for the future PH bump up to 8 to 8.5 then I'll be fighting PH big time now. So onward I proceed!

Angel079

Thanks for keeping me posted, was wondering about you guys!

If I was in your shoes...I'd built my tank based off of what's measured now (pH 7-7.5) I'd not stock it with super softies but neither the really hard water loving once neither. So I'd use the 7-7.5 as my "stocking-ideas" baseline now....What will or will not happen until THEN is still on another page (your talking 3 yrs from now with a swinging economy). Even then if they really were to bump it from 7.5 to 8 and you have fish that are just fine in 7.5 that haf degree will not be all TOO bad (and IMO from my pers exp manageable with peat).

Byron

We've no issues yet. The nice thing about this ash additive is that is adds zero hardness, so while the pH is now 7 (where by the way it has been since 2001) there is still zero GH and KH. My tanks run at pH 6.0 (115g) and 5 (70g and 90g). My Chocolate Gourami are spawning non-stop, I have half a dozen fry in the floating leaves, also other fry I can't identify yet but suspect they may be pygmy Croaking Gourami, pencilfish are spawning...so they are quite happy.

It is the proposed lime that worries me, but early indications are that it will be minimal hardness. That means the tank will lower in pH naturally, and pwc will not affect it due to the biological equilibrium. This has been my case for 15 years. But we are at least aware of whatever may come.

B.