Bringing the pH up

[gm72]

In response to a concern I have about the shells of my snails, today I checked my pH from the tap water and it is rather low, 6.4. I am usually more like 6.8. Is there an easy buffer, not a chemical to add, to bring the pH up a little closer to 7? The shells of the snails are starting to show signs of acidic wear. The fish however are fine. Thanks, folks.

[Lady Hobbs]

Bit of baking soda.

[gm72]

Is there a standard amount to use per gallon? Would I just place it in a stocking or something or actually dissolve it in the water?

[Rue]

Most snail folk add calcium to the water...I bought some designed for SW, but need to check whether I can use it for FW...

[dev]

Like Lady Hobbs says, Hydrogenbicarbonate, the main ingredient in baking soda (used to be known as calciumbicarbonate or simply calciumcarbonate) is what you want to increase the buffer capacity and thus the pH value. This carbonate has a built in safety, you will not be able to push the pH very much beyond 8.3 even if you drop an entire box into your tank, though it would be pretty hard to bring it back down to 7 :D

It's a bit tricky to work out the correct dosage to go from a given pH to another given pH, as this depends on other factors like the amount of dissolved CO2 or other acids, aswell as the presence of other buffers like phosphate.

It takes somewhere between 5 and 10 grams per 100 liters to increase pH from 5 to 7.

It's a lot easier do work out the dosage for a certain carbonate hardness (KH). 2 grams per 100 liters will increase the KH by one german degree of hardness.

If we assume that your CO2 levels are about 5 ppm (no air stone in the tank, and moderate surface movement), your current KH is 1 degree and your pH is 6.8. You will then reach pH 7.0 by increasing the KH with only 1 degree. So for a 200 liter tank, 4 grams should do the trick.

I usually dissolve about 10 grams into a 10 liter bucket, and add a little at a time until the wanted level is reached.

Remember stability is the key ;)

edit> Thinking you might not have a gram weight around, I worked out that one of my teaspoons (not a very precice measurement, i know) is about 3 grams.

[Incredulous_Ed]

Wow, good info dev. lol

[dev]

Wow, good info dev. lol
Yeah, i know. I have no idea why all this stuff is sticking in my head, it can't be normal :P

Hope it was of some help to you, gm72.

[RobbieG]

This is supposed to be for FW

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Its supposed to add calcium for the shells

They also have some very pretty snails