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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

Raising pH

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08 Mar 2015 23:49 #1 by baan (Fintan Breen)
hi there,

I'm using rainwater for my planted discus tank. I need to get more CO2 into it, but I'm currently pumping CO2 into it to a pH of 6.3. I don't want to go much lower than this, so I think I need to increase my pH so I can pump more CO2 into it and keep it at about 6.3 overall.

What should I use to raise my pH without raising my Gh.KH too much? (although I reckon I could increase these a little if necessary...).

thanks!

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09 Mar 2015 12:01 #2 by alan 64 (alan)
Replied by alan 64 (alan) on topic Raising pH
I would leave it alone personally mate

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09 Mar 2015 14:51 #3 by gunnered72 (Eddy Gunnered)
Don't use chemicals to alter PH..its just asking for trouble..I'm with Alan..best left as is...but if you really must raise your PH try do it naturally with some rock or coral sand in your filter

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09 Mar 2015 19:08 #4 by baan (Fintan Breen)
Replied by baan (Fintan Breen) on topic Raising pH
thanks. In general I agree, but therefore, I'm stuck!

I need to get more CO2 into the tank. It has a very low KH and a pH of 6.8 to start with, so with CO2, it gets to 6.3 very fast. According to Kh/pH/CO2 tables that's about 15ppm CO2. I'd like to get it up to 20-25ppm CO2. I could run it to 6.05 pH, but I'd prefer to raise the original water's pH a little bit (or perhaps the KH???) so that I could bubble through more CO2 and not lower the pH too much.

So, if I start withe the premise that I need more CO2, then I need to do something with pH or KH to enable me to be able to do taht. I agree chemicals are not great, but how fast do the rock or coral sand work? I do about 50% changes per week, and I'd prefer to have a relatively stable baseline rather than it fluctuating too much.

Or perhaps 6.05 is ok, but it seems low for me. I've always kept discus at a little more than that.... even though I know they like that for breeding?

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09 Mar 2015 21:36 #5 by alan 64 (alan)
Replied by alan 64 (alan) on topic Raising pH
Y don't u turn ur c 02 up a bit and see what the ph does my tank use to have ph of 6 when I was running c 02 and that was no problem

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09 Mar 2015 23:44 #6 by baan (Fintan Breen)
Replied by baan (Fintan Breen) on topic Raising pH
ok, I'm gonna try that. My CO2 is on a pH controller, so I've moved it down to 6.25 and will reduce by .05 a day until about 6.05 and see how that impacts on my CO2 levels.

thanks!

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10 Mar 2015 12:33 #7 by ceech (Desmond Gaynor)
Replied by ceech (Desmond Gaynor) on topic Raising pH
Discus have a ph range of pH 6.1-7.5 so being close to 6 i would imagine should not be a huge problem for you. Are they tank bred discus or Wild catch ? A more stable PH is what is best other than changing it up and down.

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10 Mar 2015 21:52 #8 by baan (Fintan Breen)
Replied by baan (Fintan Breen) on topic Raising pH
thanks, ya, it's just lower than I've ever gone with them or other inhabitants. But a look online tells me that the other fish can take down to 6 also, so I guess I'm ok.

They're tank bred... used to 6.8-7.0 according to my LFS who gets them from a local breeder.

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