help please on PH levels...

[firemouthkid]

We have 12 three foot tanks all sharing one sump and have had no ammonia or nitrate problems since january, therefore we think the bacteria in the sump is quite established - BUT -
now the ph is down to approx. 7.0 !!
Fish are mostly africans, with some americans.
Small regular water changes are done weekly but i guess now we either have to do a massive water change which is not practical,
or can we add Bicarb of Soda or something similar at a slow rate to slowly raise the ph?
Another question is should we add salt on a regular basis, as we have never added any so far ?
Have noticed the fish "flashing" quite regularly and wondered if parasites are present and whether salt would reduce this.
Thank you for any help.
Kind regards ,Tim.

[jjfish]

Hey Tim 7.0 is what i keep my tanks at so dont now what you complaining about lol thankyou...... Jordan.

[Konigwolf 13]

PH of 7.0 isnt a problem, the risk is the speed in which the PH changes. When did you check your PH previous to this and what was it? Have you changed anything of recent?

Andrew

[grokz]

a little bit of salt is always good for the fish when you do your water changes :wink:

[firemouthkid]

Konigwolf,
No dramatic changes have been made lately, i must admit to being slack and haven't checked the ph for a month or so.
I am presuming that over time the ph has slowly dropped with the build up of fish waste , etc.
The fish are showing no ill effects , but my concern is whether to raise the ph back up to a more reasonable level where they may produce more fry, more frequently, which is our main aim.
And can we use regular bi - carb soda { sodium bicarbonate} to raise it.?
Kind regards tim

[firemouthkid]

Grokz
Why is a bit of salt good?
Does it help prevent disease ?
How much ?, How often?  , what type ?
Kind regards Tim.

[LordFlashHeart]

Bi Carb will raise the pH, for a while, to keep it up though you should throw some calcium carbonate or some coral pieces into your sump.
I think salt causes your fish to develop a better slime coat, I could be wrong, I chuck in a handful or two of pool salt in with every 350l water change on my 7 foot tank.

[ashhhh]

salt can be of benefit, but be aware, some catfish, loaches and scaleless fish can get burnt by the salt, but as per usual, if you reduce the amount used for these species, all will be fine.
as for your ph prob do you have any natural buffers? ie calc carb gravel or chunks of dead (white) coral, if you have a sump and its big enough, put some in a filter bag* in the last stage and some more bags in a couple of tanks maybe?

*like a onion bag but with alot smaller holes

[devz11]

Salt works as a disease resistor and a natural healing agent. 1gram per 1 litre of water. And if doing a water change remember you only add (salt) to the litres(water) you replace back. eg. take out 10 litres add 15 litres therefore its 15grams of salt.

[Cichlidkeeper]

In a natural environment your fish are exposed to a certain saltiness in their water so a bit of salt will bring your aquarium closer to their natural environment. If you have gone to the trouble of setting up 12 tanks on a sump to breed africans surely you can lash out on a kg of african rift lake salts to assist in the conditioning of the water. If you want the best results possible then dont cut corners, if your happy with average results chuck some kitchen salt or pool salt and water ever other cheap crap you can get your hands on

[firemouthkid]

Thankyou all for your help,
Cichlidkeeper - i will look into the african rift salts, thanks.
There has been dead coral in the bottom of the sump as a ph buffer since starting the system { about 2 buckets }.
It seems not too many use bicarb of soda to keep ph higher on a frequent basis -
therefore larger water changes from now on may be the go.
thanks again
kind regards Tim.

[Otorix]

Remember when adding salt to take into account evaporation. So if you take out 10L and add 15L, I would only add salt for the 10L, because the other 5L would be evaporation and when this occurs the salt is left behind in the water. If you don't take into account evaporation overtime you will end up with fatal salt levels.

[gasnitro]

Also remember  just adding rock salt reduces ph  :)
a combo of rock salt, epsum salt and bicarb and a good buffer will do the trick.
i buy rift lake salt from Aquasonic in bulk my ph is over 8.5 and gh kh  are good also.

[here fishie fishie]

If your ph is dropping you need to look at your carbonate hardness.

Limestone works good in keeping a tank stable. If you use this with sodium bicarb you should have no dramas.
The trouble with using coral in a sump as a buffer is that algae tends to grow over it thus lessing it's buffering capabilities.

If you are going to raise the ph, only do this with a partial water change & raise the level slowly.

Also note a stable ph is more important than playing around to get an exact value.

Frenchy :D

[Otorix]

Frenchy,

Where do you get limestone from?

Also is limestone different to tufa and where do you get tufa from? I have head that tufa is less dense than say your normal riverbed rocks and is therefore recommended for stacking on top of each other because it doesn't weigh as much.

cheers,
Bruce.