Acid&alakline Buffer Substitute

[CataphractMSH]

I wondering what do you raise or lower pH in your tanks,

other than the usual pH products.

As I have used crushed egg shells to raise and

to lower my pH used dried herbs,cinamon, and coffee(crushed).

 

[InaneCathode]

Hydrochloric acid and baking soda?

 

[Lateral Line]

Raising pH is much easier then lowering it. Any alkali material, egg shells, coral sand, limestone, chalk etc. etc. will over time raise the pH, and it is pretty safe to do as the process is self limiting, once the solubility limit is reached, no more dissolves so the pH is stable.

Lowering pH is significantly more troublesome issue. The dissolved salts in the water buffer the pH and prevent it going down, so typically when starting a low pH tank, you remove all possible sources of alkali minerals from the tank and fill it with water that has been demineralised, (reverse osmosis). RO water from a quality machine is to soft to be stable, so some salts are added, (Kent RO Rite for example). Unbuffered water is very unstable and can swing wildly in pH over a very short time frame, 7->4->7 over night for example - this is usually fatal.

Unless you really understand the chemistry of what is going on, fiddling with pH is best left alone.

A lot of commercial products use a mixture of acid and alkali phosphates to buffer the pH - there use is a frequent cause of algae blooms as algae, and all plants are fertilised by phosphates.

 

[SkiFletch]

Raising pH is much easier then lowering it. Any alkali material, egg shells, coral sand, limestone, chalk etc. etc. will over time raise the pH, and it is pretty safe to do as the process is self limiting, once the solubility limit is reached, no more dissolves so the pH is stable.

Lowering pH is significantly more troublesome issue. The dissolved salts in the water buffer the pH and prevent it going down, so typically when starting a low pH tank, you remove all possible sources of alkali minerals from the tank and fill it with water that has been demineralised, (reverse osmosis). RO water from a quality machine is to soft to be stable, so some salts are added, (Kent RO Rite for example). Unbuffered water is very unstable and can swing wildly in pH over a very short time frame, 7->4->7 over night for example - this is usually fatal.

Unless you really understand the chemistry of what is going on, fiddling with pH is best left alone.

A lot of commercial products use a mixture of acid and alkali phosphates to buffer the pH - there use is a frequent cause of algae blooms as algae, and all plants are fertilised by phosphates.

Totally agree. If you HAVE to lower pH (and very rarely do you have to) cause you're trying to breed discuss, then consider starting over from scratch and adding CO2 to lower the pH, playing with acids is asking for trouble. Even CO2 needs to be carefully monitored and is not something to rush in to. If you're serious about lowering pH, go ask the guys in the planted section for a how-to. If you want to raise it, aragonite sand is a great way to go