I have african cichlids, I am having a hard time raising the PH. My PH seems to be stuck at 7.0. I have tried PH up, and african rift lake salt. Is there anything else I can try to help raise it. Any info, would be great.
The African lake salt will do the job, you just need to add enough. When you do a water change add the suggested amount to your new water, then test and make sure the water pH is around 8. Add that to the tank. Every water change, do the same thing. If you keep adding pH 8 water to the tank, the tank MUST end up around that reading. Dont try and do it in one big hit, that will shock the fish. But if you do 25% every week, after a month it will be getting close. Adding crushed limestone, coral, or seashells to the tank will help, but if your tap water is around pH 7 you are best to boost the hardness and raise the pH of all the new water you add. The cichlid salts will do that. You can actually make your own, equal parts plain salt, baking soda and epsom salts. Thats the main ingredients in the cichlid salts. Ian
The general principle is that a stable pH is far more important than achieving any textbook pH value. But if you want to raise the pH, the natural way is to use coral chips, oyster shells other seashells and limestone rocks. Some other rocks like aragonite dolomite are also suitable, though may not be as widely available. Over time the leached minerals will also buffer the water to help maintain the higher pH. The artificial way is to use chemicals. The cheapest is to use baking soda, commonly available in most kitchens or just pop down to your supermarket, which raises kH (carbonate hardness) pH. If you also need to raise gH (general hardness), try epsom salts. If you prefer to buy those commercial preparations, suggest to try Seachem's stuff. Check their website for the full range and follow instructions to the letter, sometimes better results are obtained by combining 2 products in a fixed ratio to accurately reach your targeted value. If you're using any chemicals other than those commercial stuff with predetermined measurements, the rule is to go slow first like starting with only 1/2 to 1 teaspoon and monitoring the pH. The best thing is to try out first using a tap water sample, instead of immediately adding to your tank. Best not to have more than pH change of 0.5 in a day. Any change is 10 times the effect of the last pH, rapidly changing pH can stress fish literally to death. One obvious thing is to check you have nothing in your tank that is softening making the water acidic eg. any wood. And keep up regular water changes since one of the results of the constant nitrogen cycle in the tank is the production of hydrogen ions that lower the pH.
A stable PH is the best PH. You should never use PH up in any tank. As soon as it hits the carbon filters it is pulled from the tank immediately dropping the PH bact to where it was. This isn't good for the fish. Naturally raising the ph is as simple as adding a couple of sea shells to your filter. You can use a netting or even a carbon containter for your filter and place sea shells crushed coral dolomite into the filter and let it run. This will naturally bring up the PH. you can also burry sea shells below your substrate so they are hidden (or leave them out in the open) Starting off with a 6,8 is lower than what you are getting at a 7 in the tank. Use the salt and add shells or crushed corals in the filter. This will raise the ph naturally over the course of a few days and it will hold an 8.
