How to combat pH drift
Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2010 6:43 pm
Hi there,
I have 135gal tank with clown loaches, zebra loaches, lamb chop rasboras. gold barbs and peppered corrys. My water source is extremely soft (less then 1 KH, GH units) so very prone to sudden pH changes. Although I do routine water changes every 1.5-2 weeks, I still not always catch that sudden pH drop. I've been trying to use small quantities of coral sand in my filter to increase buffering capacity of water, but it stabilizes the pH at ~ 7.2 (I am using a tiny amount, approx 1 teaspoon) and I am noticing that my loaches are not as active at this pH as I've seen them before. I've tried using Seachem Neutral regulator, but it increases phosphates dramatically, and I already have algae in the tank and don't want to promote it even more. Any other suggestions?
I have 135gal tank with clown loaches, zebra loaches, lamb chop rasboras. gold barbs and peppered corrys. My water source is extremely soft (less then 1 KH, GH units) so very prone to sudden pH changes. Although I do routine water changes every 1.5-2 weeks, I still not always catch that sudden pH drop. I've been trying to use small quantities of coral sand in my filter to increase buffering capacity of water, but it stabilizes the pH at ~ 7.2 (I am using a tiny amount, approx 1 teaspoon) and I am noticing that my loaches are not as active at this pH as I've seen them before. I've tried using Seachem Neutral regulator, but it increases phosphates dramatically, and I already have algae in the tank and don't want to promote it even more. Any other suggestions?