qusetion on PH levels

[sunnyjones003]

hi to all,

i hope this thread is in the right place

ive finally got my tank up and running a few weeks ago but i cant seem to keep the PH level average at 8.
its on 6.8 at the moment but i got some malawi's on the way and ive read up i need my tank between 7.8-8.6.

whats the best way of maintaining the levels,
i do 10-15% water change every weekend and my tank consists of boogwood and ocean rocks.

thank you

[rookie]

you can use crushed corel but the trick is to have it consistant fish dont like fluctuating ph. also i know that drift wood lowers your ph i dont know if bogwood is the same. good luck

[bushwhacker]

a bag of crushed coral mixed with your substrate should fix you right up.. if you have a place that sells rocks look for a nice piece of calcium carbonate rock. looks like a bunch of white crystals neat lookin rock and will help ya a lot

[sunnyjones003]

ok ill try that rock you just said

[Mith]

They also sell "Chichlid Substrate" which has a LOT of crushed shells (I use that in my cichlid tank)

[rangur1]

get rid of the bogwood, add hardeners like crushed coral, not sure about the ocean rock , is it free of growth? ---dying salt water life on these rocks will lower ph. you could also add cichlid salts/buffers to the water when you do water changes. [this is easiest if you have water storage tank. ]
then you can raise ph very slowly each week a little at a time.

[domjd05]

Try to do it without using any ph UP OR DOWN chemicals, unless you know how to perfectly add enough each week (because the ph will still bounce back down after use of these chemicals) I would advise you not to use it... the constantly changing PH levels will kill your fish. Also I would take out the wood... use TONS of rock work..

you may want to look into your water hardness/softness issue also, the malawi will prefer hard water.

[sunnyjones003]

thank you all, ok what has a normal high ph level in its self like the cichlid substrate, something i can add to the tank as a decor or some sort??

[bushwhacker]

limestone works great too