pH Crash!

[Lam Nguyen]

I have heard a lot about pH crashes but haven't paid much attention to it until I did a water test of my indoor QT tank yesterday and my pH reading was 5.6! I thought it was the digital pH meter but the pH was still around 5.6 after I calibrated it. I immediately changed about 1/3 of the water in the tank and added baking soda until pH rose to 7.3. I heard that using too much baking soda is not good for skin/color quality. My question is, what is the best way to maintain pH at around 7.2-7.4 without using baking soda? I definitely don't want to be scared like that again!

[Tamianth]

Hi Lam,
First, whats the parameters from your water source (tap or well?) for PH, KH and GH? Lets take a look at the overall picture!

[KoiCop]

Quote: Originally Posted by Lam Nguyen My question is, what is the best way to maintain pH at around 7.2-7.4 without using baking soda?

Bio-filtration eats up the KH which supports (buffers) your pH; when the KH drops, so does the pH.

The easiest way to keep your KH (and therefore your pH) at baseline (tap/well) levels is to do sufficient water changes. That way, the readings won't drop and therefore won't need to be snapped back into line.

This, of course, assumes that your tap/well water is of satisfactory quality/quantity in the first place. If that's not the case, then baking soda can be used to boost the KH.

So like Kathy asked, what are your baseline (tap/well) readings for pH, KH & GH?

[HEADACHE6]

How quick did you go from 5.6 to 7.3 ? That could be another issue Now .

[Kristine]

I’ve used crushed oyster shells and that helped the alkalinity a little but I don’t know how many pounds of oyster shells per gallons of water would be needed.

[gcuss]

Quote: Originally Posted by KoiCop Bio-filtration eats up the KH which supports (buffers) your pH; when the KH drops, so does the pH. The easiest way to keep your KH (and therefore your pH) at baseline (tap/well) levels is to do sufficient water changes. That way, the readings won't drop and therefore won't need to be snapped back into line. This, of course, assumes that your tap/well water is of satisfactory quality/quantity in the first place. If that's not the case, then baking soda can be used to boost the KH. So like Kathy asked, what are your baseline (tap/well) readings for pH, KH & GH?

I used to get mild fluctuations until I was convinced (I believe by Don) to change my way of thinking and now with 10% daily water changes my ph is solid as a rock.

Just one of the benefits....

Grant

[dick benbow]

A little dab il do ya....well actually a continuous trickle of declorinaded water will stabilize it
to the PH of the source water....works for me has for decades

[Lam Nguyen]

Thank you Dick. I actually had the constant trickle installed and running even prior to the pH crash but I think that it wasn't flowing fast enough and it was when I returned home from the Tosai Selection seminar, so I hadn't dumped the Nexus. Now I have the water running a little faster and religiously dump my Nexus and, according to my calculations, I change probably 30% of the water a week. The koi are much more active and, believe it or not, I am starting to see growth! Happy koi = happy koi kichi! Now I just need to install a water dechlorinator.