Wednesday, July 29, 2009

How can I raise the PH level in my saltwater tank without using chemicals??

I have had my saltwater tank up and running now for over 3 months and everything looks great except my PH level is a lil low. I have a 75 gallon tank.
Answers:
No driftwood, that will lower it!! The crushed coral will raise it. Here's a link on how to safely adjust your ph:

http://www.drhelm.com/aquarium/chemistry...

Also be mindful too that the new water you add will have a different ph then your tank. You may need to soak some water ahead of time for water changes with something to raise the ph.
Are you using sand for substrate? Crushed coral works well to help stabalize the PH levels. If you don't have any, you could buy a couple bags to put in there. Make sure you rinse it off well, just like anything you would put in your aquarium.
adding drift wood will add tannic acid to your water which should raise the ph.
crushed corals and sand help you to maintain the ph level.
recommended ph level is about 8.5 in saltwater aquarium, u can do 20% - 30% water change when the ph drop but this is not a good solution , but in my tank i always add calcium additives, if u want u can add a calcium reactor but it is somehow expensive..
Coral or aragonite will help maintain the pH if it goes blow around 7.8. It won't do much to raise it from there, I'm afraid. I never had pH problems until a few years ago - but then I lived in an area where the pH of the tapwater was 8.3. Now it's soft water and I had trouble getting mine to go above 7.8 with shell substrate and lots of coralline rock. The only thing that worked for me was to add kalkwasser (and I tried several other pH buffers first, but never went above 8.0). You don't need to use a dosing system, I just mixed it in a bottle and add it by the medicine dropper 1-2 times a day and to the new water when I do a water change. As long as you don't add too much at once and keep an eye on the pH in the tank, it fairly easy to figure out how much you need to add and how often. All my tanks are back to 8.3-8.4 for my algaes.

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