[rong666]

hi,
i live in portland......the other day i got a wild hair up the ol' arse and dedcided to check the kh and gh in my 55 gal......well i had know idea how frickn soft the water was up here....the kh didnt even register.......so then i decided to check my ph...well it ended up being like 5.5.....this bugged me because my tap runs at 7.0....so then i did some reading up on how undisolved organic matter in your tank will leach acids and in turn raise the acidity of your water(lower the ph).......oh yea, i have a ugf....until i rip it out..........so for the last 4 days ive been slowly raising the kh by adding calcium bicarbonate at a rate of 1/8 of a tablespoon per gallon in hopes to stablize my ph @6.8 or 7.......to make a long story short....my p's were doing fine before i started dickn' with everything....am i just wasting my time....
Ron

 

[hastatus]

well i had know idea how frickn soft the water was up here

Have you never noticed the amount of peat in the forests in Oregon?

 

[SnowCichlid.]

so then i did some reading up on how undisolved organic matter in your tank will leach acids and in turn raise the acidity of your water(lower the ph

you can avoid this problem with more frequent WC's :biggrin:

 

[pythonwill]

so then i did some reading up on how undisolved organic matter in your tank will leach acids and in turn raise the acidity of your water(lower the ph

you can avoid this problem with more frequent WC's :biggrin:

I also live in Oregon and had the same problem and I do 25% W/C every week. what I did was put some crushed coral in my filter and it brought my PH up to 6.8 in a few days time and it has been staying there for a week now.

 

[rong666]

i do weekly 25 to 30 percent water changes weekly also....im assuming that my undergravel filter and the trapped garbage is causing my ph to drop.........i just recently moved out of a 100 year old house and i can only assume that the house was plumbed with concrete pipes because my tap was runing about 6 kh and a ph of about 7.8....well anyways my p's are happy and healthy with their current conditions......all i wanted input on was weather i should be messn' with adding calcium carbonate as a buffer or if rippn' out the undergravel filter should solve the problem..........thanx
Ron

 

[SnowCichlid.]

A good Cheap buffer for keeping the pH value Higher is to use crushed Oyster shells.
Wroks Great I use it many of my tanks

 

[rong666]

if i used crushed oyster shells in my filter could i just leave them in there indefinately.....it wont cause my ph to raise to high.....will it be gradual enough......or will it just buffer it at 7.0 which is what is coming out of my tap......is it possible to over dose with oyster shells....sorry for all the ???'s.........i just want to fully understand before i try,
Ron