Fixing Ph And Nitrates

[BigBeginner]

two quick questions

how can i fix low ph, the ph in my tank is 7.8

and how can i fix extremely high nitrates , im guessing a big water change?

thanks for any help

 

[garybuk]

two quick questions

how can i fix low ph, the ph in my tank is 7.8

and how can i fix extremely high nitrates , im guessing a big water change?

thanks for any help

Yes and Ph buff from your lfs!!

 

[Colin_T]

If the PH in the tank is 7.8 then it is high and alkaline.
Depending on what fish you keep will determine whether or not you need to adjust it at all. If you keep livebearers like mollies, or rainbowfish or rift lake cichlids, then leave it be. If you are keeping wild caught angels, discus or tetras then you can lower it a bit.
If your tap water is below 7.0 and you want to raise it, then add some sodium bicarbonate to a bucket of tap water, aerate the mixture for 30minutes and then check the PH.

Nitrates can be lowered by more frequent water changes and reducing the food or number of fish in the tank. The more food you feed the fish, the higher the nitrates will go. Doing bigger water changes (50-75%), or doing them more frequently, (twice weekly or even every day) will help to lower them.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine and has a similar temperature and PH to the tank.

 

[BigBeginner]

uh i didnt really get what u said about the ph, this is a saltwater tank o.o

thanks about the nitrates, ill do a big water change and try to do small ones more frequently

 

[ben1987]

What rock do you have in the tank? If you have the white base rock/reef bones then this can cause a low PH.
Try and increase the surface movement by aiming a pump up. This will alow more oxygen into the water upping the PH

 

[BigBeginner]

i have both live rock and base, but the base rock has been in there forever, it might as well be live, nothing has changed since i had 8.2 ph, ill try making more surface movement though

im going to the pet store today so ill see if they have any ph buffers

are water changes the only way to fix nitrates?

 

[Colin_T]

oops, sorry, I didn't read the heading under marine. I just assumed it was freshwater, bad me.
Sodium bicarbonate can be used to buffer the PH & KH in a marine tank. It is available from any supermarket and doesn't cost much. Also increasing surface turbulence (as mentioned by ben) can help. If more surface turbulence does make a difference then the low PH is caused by excess CO2 in the water.
You can check the PH in the morning before the lights come on and in the evening before they go out. If the PH is lower in the morning (before the lights come on) and is higher in the evening, then it is fluctuating throughout the day due to corals/ algae using the CO2 and raising the PH. More surface turbulence should fix this problem too.

 

[BigBeginner]

is 7 low for dKH?

and do i just put the sodium thing into the tank? how much do i put?

 

[Colin_T]

A carbonate hardness of 7 is fine for a tank but if there are lots of fish, or lots of food going into the tank, then having it higher will help prevent it running out as quickly. Many people have it around 10-12dKH.

You add 1/2 level teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate to a glass of water (either fresh or salt water, it doesn't really matter). Stir it up until it dissolves and then pour it into the tank. Try not to pour it onto corals and if possible, pour it near a filter outlet so the solution gets distributed quickly. You can also pour it into a trickle filter or sump without any worries.
Check the PH each day and add more sodium bicarbonate (bicarb) until it has gone back up to about 8.4. Then add a bit of bicarb every few days or whenever the KH or PH drops.

 

[BigBeginner]

ok thanks =] and you say i can find this at the grocery store?

 

[jeasko]

if i remeber rightly trying to up the PH without the Dkh being in the right area is pointless (and i think the ca is also affected by Dkh) as it will just be absorbed into the water with little results

Dkh is roughly speaking kept at around 9-13 dKH for a marine setup and once you have acheived somewhere in this range then the PH should be able to be upped effectively, I know from experience that PH buffers are pointless without the DKH being right as i went through loads of the stuff with no effect when my Dkh was low, as soon as i got it upto 9-10Dkh my Ph stabilized without a problem.

also if i remember rightly the lighting can make the ph spike when it comes on and goes off, but cant be sure this is correct hopefully someone will confrim or deny this for me.

 

[BigBeginner]

ok i have a question
i have 2 test kits and both have nitrate and so the first one i did turn out to be like 40-160 nitrate and so i asked on this forum what i could do to reduce it and yada yada. so i did a like 15-20% waterchange and i used the other kit (was to lazy to get the one i used before) and now im in the 5-10's. That leaves me wondering about these tests

Will a small water change really do this? or is it mostly a test error (im doing the nitrate test agian with the test kit i used the first time now) but i dont really think it is a error because the test kits are both API and i used the first test kit to test the nitrates in my other smaller tank and it turned out 5-10

 

[SkiFletch]

Nitrate test kits are woefully inaccurate at the hobby level. Even the higher priced ones aren't the greatest. Most likely one or both tests are inaccurate. Wish I could offer more help than that

 

[BigBeginner]

i dunno what to do now

i retested both of the test and both turned out the same as they did before, so ONE at least has to be wrong, cause the results aren't anywhere near each other, there both kinda bad though so ill keep treating for high nitrates

im going to go look at my lfs see if they have anything to put into the filter to reduce nitrates.

I highly doubt that the 80-160 test is correct because if my nitrates were that high, wouldnt all my fish be dead?
Everythign is doing fine, except for my cabbage leather which wont open anymore and is covered in slimey webby stuff (any comment on this?) and my un-ided clown (maybe a maroon? its brownish red, 3 white and yellow stripes, and has black on its fins) and it has like a pale blue kinda of slimy looking patch on its side (any comment on this?) ill probably make new posts for those problems

 

[SkiFletch]

Nitrates of that level certainly won't harm fish, they can harm corals though. Anyway you can get pics of these problems?