I have a 24g nano cube and I recently checked the ph and its at 7.8 do I need to raise it to have it between 8.2 and 8.4? If so, I have done some research on the internet and it says to add baking soda to raise the ph for a quick fix is this correct? Has anyone done this before. I have already tried to change out a third of my water but that really didn't help. Also my nitrate levels are high, should I do another water change in a day or so. Cleaned out the filters and didn't help. It appears that everything in my tank is thriving and growing . Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Water Ph? and Nitrate?
- Thread starter M Leezy
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I would not suggest you to use baking soda to increase your ph, as it may increase your alkalinity too much. If you are looking to increase pH you should use baked baking soda (soda ash or washing soda). The process of baking the baking soda burns off the CO2 which is a ph reducing compound.
7.8 is not critically low, I would increase flow/ surface agitation to allow better gas exchange before resorting to additives.
7.8 is not critically low, I would increase flow/ surface agitation to allow better gas exchange before resorting to additives.
I'll just keep up with the water changes and see if the ph goes to my desired 8.2-8.3 range. My nitrate levels are still high hopefully the water changes will raise the ph and lower the nitrate level. If not I will come back and keep asking you fellow reefers on what to do and what not to do. Thanks peeps
You can bake it yourself. Just buy a 1lb container of arm and hammer or whatever brand you like. Put it on into a ceramic bowl or foil and bake it in the oven for a good 30mins-1hour at like 300F or so.
HOWEVER baking soda and other alkalinity buffers should not be used as a pH controller. Baking soda influences pH by increasing alkalinity (your waters buffering capacity) allowing it to neutralize more acids in the water and thus raising the pH. However you only want to raise your alkalinity to a certain level, NSW is around 8 dkh (I keep mine at around 9-10).
CO2 in your water is gonna be the 2nd biggest factor, high co2 will lower your waters pH level. Increasing alkalinity a buttload when there is an excessive amount of CO2 in the water won't do anything and can be even more detrimental. To address that you need to increase oxygenation by aeration (possibly from an external source if your house air is high in co2) or by use of a refugium or other algae.
Nitrate issue
Using appropriate water with your water changes can help a lot. If you use bucket salt with ro/di water it'll be a lot cleaner than using catalina water. This will help with your alkalinity issue as well, however most companies tend to keep it near NSW levels of around 8-8.5dkh. If your tank is say at 6dkh and you do a 50% water change with 8dkh water then your tank will be at 7 roughly. So dosing in this case is necessary.
HOWEVER baking soda and other alkalinity buffers should not be used as a pH controller. Baking soda influences pH by increasing alkalinity (your waters buffering capacity) allowing it to neutralize more acids in the water and thus raising the pH. However you only want to raise your alkalinity to a certain level, NSW is around 8 dkh (I keep mine at around 9-10).
CO2 in your water is gonna be the 2nd biggest factor, high co2 will lower your waters pH level. Increasing alkalinity a buttload when there is an excessive amount of CO2 in the water won't do anything and can be even more detrimental. To address that you need to increase oxygenation by aeration (possibly from an external source if your house air is high in co2) or by use of a refugium or other algae.
Nitrate issue
Using appropriate water with your water changes can help a lot. If you use bucket salt with ro/di water it'll be a lot cleaner than using catalina water. This will help with your alkalinity issue as well, however most companies tend to keep it near NSW levels of around 8-8.5dkh. If your tank is say at 6dkh and you do a 50% water change with 8dkh water then your tank will be at 7 roughly. So dosing in this case is necessary.
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