greg@legs.UUCP (Greg Ebert) (01/16/90)
In article <25AED539.16687@paris.ics.uci.edu>, rang@paris.ics.uci.edu (Roger Penaranda Jr. Ang) writes: > Hi there, > I'm just about ready to start up a marine tank. Just need to > raise the pH a tad (it's 7.9 right now). Do you have enough crushed coral in the bottom ? It is a natural pH buffer which will 'dissolve' until acidic water is brought up to 8.3-8.4 . Be careful about your pH test kit. If it's old, dirty, contaminated, wrong water temp, it won't be accurate.
BRIDGE@rcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (JOHN BRIDGE) (01/16/90)
Arm & Hammer is fine to use in aquarium. It will raise the hardness a bit but you use so little of it to raise pH that hardness increase is not a problem unless you have extremely hard water to start with. The carbonate is also probably more beneficial to the plants than the phosphate in most tanks. Ask Richard S. John
hutching%elan.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Brad Hutchings) (01/17/90)
In article <2445@legs.UUCP> greg@legs.UUCP (Greg Ebert) writes: >In article <25AED539.16687@paris.ics.uci.edu>, rang@paris.ics.uci.edu (Roger Penaranda Jr. Ang) writes: >> Hi there, >> I'm just about ready to start up a marine tank. Just need to >> raise the pH a tad (it's 7.9 right now). > > Do you have enough crushed coral in the bottom ? It is a natural > pH buffer which will 'dissolve' until acidic water is brought > up to 8.3-8.4 . Be careful about your pH test kit. If it's old, > dirty, contaminated, wrong water temp, it won't be accurate. According to Moe, crushed coral will only start to regulate PH when it is down around 7.7-7.8 (somewhere around there, I can't remember exactly). Crushed coral will *not* bring the pH up from 7.9 Brad
bbc@nysa.rice.edu (Benjamin Chase) (01/17/90)
BRIDGE@rcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (JOHN BRIDGE) writes: >Arm & Hammer is fine to use in aquarium. Yes, if it sodium bicarbonate. >It will raise the hardness a >bit but you use so little of it to raise pH that hardness increase >is not a problem unless you have extremely hard water to start with. Um, John, pay attention, he's got a marine tank, not fresh. "Hardness" isn't a concern in marine tanks, at least not the variety produced by carbonates. The live rock, crushed coral, bleached dead coral etc. added to most marine tanks supply large amounts of calcium carbonate to the tank. This is what buffers the pH, and drags it up towards 8+. The addition of a few more carbonate ions will scarcely be noticed. >The carbonate is also probably more beneficial to the plants than the >phosphate in most tanks. True. -- Ben Chase <bbc@rice.edu>, Rice University, Houston, Texas (First one up against the wall when the fish police arrived.)
BRIDGE@rcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (JOHN BRIDGE) (01/17/90)
Ben,
I was answering a note about a guy with lots of plants and a pH
hovering around 6. Just didn't occur to me it was marine!!! Would
think he would have lots of fish problems. Can marine fish take a
pH that low? I have zip experience with marine tanks. Johnjeff@grc.UUCP (Jeff Frank) (01/18/90)
In article <1296@island.uu.net> rich@island.uu.net (Rich Fanning) writes: >In article <25AED539.16687@paris.ics.uci.edu> rang@paris.ics.uci.edu (Roger Penaranda Jr. Ang) writes: >>Bicarbonate. Anyway, the question. Isn't Sodium Bicarbonate the same >>as Arm & Hammer baking soda? Could I use the later for the same >>purpose? Explanations would be appreciated. Is there anything else besides the this main ingredient in either product? Purity may be an important factor. > >My local aquarium store recommended sodium biphosphate for raising pH >in fresh water. (At $1 per ounce, of *course* they did!) > >I wonder why sodium bicarbonate could not be used instead. It would have the >additional benefit of not supplying phosphates for algae. Is it that >biphosphate is a better buffering agent than bicarbonate? > Are you sure sodium biphoshate is what he said? I think phoshate is trivalent. As such I think tri-sodium phosphate is what he actually proposed. A one molar solution of this would be 50% better than a one molar solution of bicarbonate. So, at the expense of the algae problem you correctly raise it would be a better pH buffer. >If bicarbonate would work OK, I wonder if Arm & Hammer has any additives >which would cause problems. My guess is that it is quite safe. -- Jeff Frank GENROCO, Inc. Slinger, Wis. {rutgers, lll-winken} !uwm!grc!jeff
paisley@cme.nist.gov (Scott Paisley) (01/18/90)
In article <BBC.90Jan16172456@nysa.rice.edu> bbc@nysa.rice.edu (Benjamin Chase) writes: > BRIDGE@rcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (JOHN BRIDGE) writes: >>Arm & Hammer is fine to use in aquarium. >Yes, if it sodium bicarbonate. Ok, so how much sodium bicarbonate should I add per gallon to raise the Ph from 7.9 to 8.1? What would cause a sudden drop in the Ph anyway? -- "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force." Scott Paisley paisley@cme.nist.gov ..!uunet!cme-durer!paisley
BRIDGE@rcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (JOHN BRIDGE) (01/19/90)
Scott,
Get a glass container, put some water in it, dump in a bunch of
sodium bicarbonate and mix it up until it is all dissolved. Dribble a
little bit of it into your tank, let it mix thoroughly and measure pH.
If it is not high enough, dribble in a little more, etc. etc. until
you get it the way you want it. Why a sudden drop? Gee, could be a
lot of reasons. Don't have any idea what the buffer capacity of your
tap water is. Whatever is it, you ran out of it for some unknown
reason. Various aquarium books discuss the problem. Only you can
discover just what happened in your case. John