I Need Help Please

[Birdman]

About a month ago we started getting our usual bright sunny days. And I got one heck of an alge bloom. I don't have a UV, and just I cant afford one right now.

I test my water every Sunday morning and two weeks ago notinced my PH was clear up to 9.2, at 5 AM. As the day progressed it got up to 10.

My well water is always 8.2 PH, 72 KH and 72 GH. Never changes.

I started adding baking soda to raise the KH and started adding calcium carbornate to raise the GH. I was following the article in KOI USA by Roddy Conrad. I also started adding muratic acid to hold the PH at 9 all day.

After a week of adding stuff, at 6 AM today my KH was 150, my GH was 160, numbers I was very pleased with. But my PH was still at 9.2.

So I decided to treat for PH more aggressivly, to try and get it down in the 8s. I have been taking a PK reading every half hour and adding muratic acid as needed to keep the PH from climbing. At 4 PM my PH was down to 8.8 but now my KH is all shot to hell again, from 150 down to 115. So the muratic acid must wipe out the HK I guess.

What am I suposed to do, maitain the KH and let the PH stay in the high 9s? Drop the PH and ignore the KH? Or Keep adding baking sida and muratic acid both until the fish are swimming in a slurry? Or what.

YES, as you can tell I am pretty discouraged, and all thoes other un printable words, and pretty concerned for my fish.

Any ideas?

[luke frisbee]

Birdie,
First do no harm...i have heard that somewhere else?
if your fish have shown you your water is "off" THEN find out about the chemistry...
How did you cure or neutralize the PH shift from the concrete?

BTW why didn't you keep tossing well water to correct the chemistry?

[dcny]

Baking soda is a buffer. I think it's in the 8.2-8.4 pH range. If you're pH was high, adding baking soda should have lowered it to it's buffer range.

I'm very not familiar with muratic acid so I can't comment very much however I don't know if using acid in conjuction with baking soda will lower you pH

Are you using a test kit from last season? Could your kit be off? Sorry I can't be of more help.

-Dan

[luke frisbee]

yeah dcny adds to my "let the fish tell ya that you have a problem"...sure if you got all the urge break out the test kit and check...but the fish will tell ya when ya got something that severe happening.....
Mine don't feed as strong if I haven't done a water change in a week..i can't imagine what having that drastic a chemistry shift would do to their behavior.....Jump up in the bushes?

[Ryan S.]

Assuming you may have concrete/mortor products in the pond, otherwise are you sure your PH testing is acurate, try another meter or kit to make sure. I would increase your baking soda additions.

[Birdman]

This is my old outside pond I am dealing with. The new pond with the motor isn't near finished. Also I tested a friends pond yesterday who lives a quarter mile away. His KH and GH were low also, around 72, and like me his PH was over 9. We are both on the same well.

My GH and KH test kits are new. And I just bought a new PH pen two weeks ago when I started having problems.

My fish are fine, swimming around a lot and eating me out of house and home. But there's no way anyone is going yo convince me a PH of 10 isn't going to hurt them.

I have always done a lot of water changes, wekk water runs 8.2 to 8.6 PH

[luke frisbee]

Start increasing the water changes in frequency and percentage...THAT would be much better than adding crap
But it sounds like what you got ain't broke

[dcny]

Quote: Originally Posted by luke frisbee Start increasing the water changes in frequency and percentage...THAT would be much better than adding crap But it sounds like what you got ain't broke

Ditto what Luke said. Especially if that well water is free. Also test the well water to make sure it's still 8.2-8.6.

-Dan

[Birdman]

Quote: Originally Posted by dcny Ditto what Luke said. Especially if that well water is free. Also test the well water to make sure it's still 8.2-8.6. -Dan

The well water isn't free, it's a cumminity well. But it's a whole lot cheaper than junk.

OK, if the well water is 8.2, then what brought my PH up to 9.2?

[Arthur]

Adding baking soda (sodium bi-carbonate) is not a solution.

A small amount of calcium chloride (CaCl) will stop the pH from going too high by precipitating calcium carbonates out of the water as the pH rises.

In a mature pond without adequate carbonates supply the pH tends to get down (and will eventually crash). It is not natural for a mature pond to develop a rising pH unless there is a problem with the source water OR things like lime rocks or fresh concrete.

It is not recommended to change the pH too fast as this is very damaging to the fish. The recommended method to keep the pH in a "normal" range is to put oyster shells or rice coral in the water flow. As bacteria "eat" the ammonia, they release CO2 which turns into carbonic acid, which in turn "eats" the carbonates in the oyster shells / rice coral to make bi-carbonates in solution.

The pH can get too high if their is a lack of GH (ie a lack of Ca or Mg in the water). Free Ca++ in the water will precipitate excess HCO2 to limit how high the pH can go.