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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

What could be lowering pH?

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14 Oct 2007 11:47 #1 by essjay (S Jackson)
In my 400L tank my substrate is almost completely crushed coral. Add that that probably 50kgs of texas holey rock and some coral gravel in the filter. I need a high pH for my Tangs.

The pH seems to hover around 7.6 or there abouts.

I changed about 75L of water on Friday night and the fresh water I added was at least 8.5/8.6. After the water change the tank water pH was around the 7.9-8.1 mark. Just tested the water now again (Sunday morning) at it's back down to 7.5.

I have a tiny piece of bog wood (maybe 8cm long by 2cm thick and 2cm tall) but I don't think that should have such a dramatic effect. I have that in there for the bristlenose plecs.

Any ideas? I'm baffeled.

So how to up the pH chemically? Do I add some buffer to a pint glass and just pour it in? I'd be worried that the mix would be very concentrated in certain parts of the tank before it mixes in fully.

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14 Oct 2007 13:08 #2 by lampeye (lampeye)
next time you do a wc add some bread soda to the water, be carefully ... add a teaspoon and see what change it makes. 7.6 isnt too bad, 7.8 would be ideal.

lampeye

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14 Oct 2007 20:26 #3 by essjay (S Jackson)
I add some Kent African Cichlid Buffer to the fresh water going in. Should I add bread soda also?

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15 Oct 2007 08:04 - 15 Oct 2007 13:23 #4 by apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
Replied by apistodiscus (apistodiscus) on topic Re:What could be lowering pH?
one or the other since they essentially do the same thing unless you need to increase your GH as well
Last edit: 15 Oct 2007 13:23 by apistodiscus (apistodiscus).

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15 Oct 2007 20:25 #5 by essjay (S Jackson)
7.3 today... I dunno what's going on!

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15 Oct 2007 21:28 #6 by Anthony (Anthony)
Replied by Anthony (Anthony) on topic Re:What could be lowering pH?
How high is your nitrate and what test kit are you using.

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15 Oct 2007 22:34 #7 by KenS (Ken Simpson)
It could be a test kit issue. They do have an expiry date so it's good to check and ensure that it's still within its date range.

Regards,

Ken.

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16 Oct 2007 09:19 #8 by essjay (S Jackson)
Nitrates are a little higher than I'd want - 10-20ppm.

FOr testing the pH I've used 2 seperate kits and a digital pH meter, so it's can be them. All are less than a year old also.

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16 Oct 2007 10:30 #9 by apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
Replied by apistodiscus (apistodiscus) on topic Re:What could be lowering pH?
anything under 25mg/l of nitrate is fine for most fish including Malawis and Tangs. That definitely won't influence your pH to that extent.
Did you try and rest your tapwater for a day and then check the pH? I would almost take a bet that the pH will have dropped from your initial tapwater reading. For example, my tapwater has a pH of 7.8 coming out of the tap. After resting it for a couple of hours it's down to 6.9. Ok, that drop is a bit more extreme than yours but my tapwater is very soft (KH

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16 Oct 2007 12:42 #10 by essjay (S Jackson)
I'll have a go at that also

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18 Oct 2007 11:17 #11 by arabesque (Mick Veale)
test the hardness of your water.
if it's soft it'll fluctuate

the buffering qualities of coral sand doesnt last forever
so you might need to harden the water using a buffer(s)

There's a recipe for epsom salts and sodium bicarb in this section
that has worked well for me for the last 2 years... my water is rediculously
soft but i keep my ph around 8.4 - 8.6

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