I was reading a thread and articles over the weekend about using kalkwasser and thought of a question. Kalkwasser sounds really simple to fix and use and I am definately going to set up a drip either sometime this week or weekend. Maybe it'll help simplify and correct some of the water chemistry that we've battled for a while. But I was wondering with the ph adjusted using kalkwasser, how do you get the ph to match the tank when you're mixing water for a water change, without over doing it?
Water change and ph.
- Thread starter MoonInTn
- Start date
serpentman
part time superhero
Most mixes should bring the pH to the proper levels of 8.2-8.4. However, if your tank pH issues are related to higher ambient CO2 levels, you may have difficultly with your mix as well. I currently do 10% water changes with the pH varying .2-.4 from the tank with no pH buffer and have found the effects to be negligible.
Also thought I'd share, I have difficulty bringing pH up in the winter. Last week when the weather was nice, I opened the windows and the pH rose .2.
Also thought I'd share, I have difficulty bringing pH up in the winter. Last week when the weather was nice, I opened the windows and the pH rose .2.
drummereef
Team RC
Don't worry too much about the pH. The amount of water added to the tank during a water change is neglegable in regards to pH. Much more important to get your temp and salinity correct.
Read this article before you start dosing -
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.htm
Read this article before you start dosing -
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.htm
Snowboarda42
New member
if you're setting up a drip, the rate that its going into your tank will not have a great enough effect on the PH in your tank.
Snowboarda42
New member
"The fact that limewater is very basic (the pH is typically above 12) demands that the limewater be added slowly to an aquarium unless very small additions are made. The reason for this is two-fold: to prevent the local pH in the area of the addition from rising too high (slow addition permits more rapid mixing with tank water to reduce the pH), and to prevent the overall tank pH from rising too high (slow addition allows the tank to pull in CO2 from the atmosphere during the slow addition, mitigating the pH rise)."
conformity
New member
what i do is take a sample of water from your tank and fill a test tube and a sample from the water in question in another test tube. then test the ph of each smple then compair the resulting colors to show how close they are.
Thanks for the replies everybody. We change about 15 gallons in the 90, and about 10 gallons in the 75 every week. It's become a ritual. Of course it was a ritual every week when we had freshwater tanks too. Just carried that habit over. Of course with freshwater we didn't have to worry about the difference in the ph as bad. We just wanted to touch base with some of you and see if that would be a problem. Looks like we can have a little more peace of mind once we get a drip started. Thanks again!!
