# PH - Formalin/Malachite Green



## bms (Feb 19, 2004)

Does Formalin/Malachite Green (quick cure) have any effect on PH?

Added some to my tank this afternoon and found my PH to be 7.6 a couple of hours later!

I had just measured it yesterday ( and consistently for about a week) at 7.0

Looking for possible reasons... is it possible for the Ph to spike like that due to poor CO2 inyection? I have had my DIY CO2 mix for about a week and a half.

I am using a 1.5 litter bottle with jello mix: 3oz pack of jello, 1 cup of sugar with two cups of water to prepare the jello, then added another cup of water with 1/2 tsp of yeast and 1/2 tsp of baking soda.


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## MiamiAG (Jan 13, 2004)

Benicio,

I've only used malachite green once or twice. What was the problem that required its addition?

I've never heard that it would impact pH. I would suspect your yeast mix went bad. I've also never used a yeast mix with jello or baking soda. Where did you get that formula?


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## Chuck H (Jan 25, 2004)

Benicio,

I'm not sure if Quick Cure will impact pH, but I suggest you contact the manufacturer to find out for sure. My feeling is that the dosage is too low to have much of an impact on the pH. I would agree with Art that the yeast mix probably went bad. If you are using bread yeast, this is very likely since it tends to produce a lot of CO2 at first and then die of quickly, sometimes in only a few days.


Art,

I first heard of the use of baking soda in DIY CO2 from Jeff Kropp's recipe way back when. I think it's really only needed for soft water to supply some buffering so the yeast mix won't go acid too quickly killing off yeast prematurely.

I don't know where Jello came from or what benefit it supposedly has.


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## Corigan (Mar 15, 2004)

I'm using quick cure right now, ich outbreak. I'm on about day 6 or so of it. It is seeming to be pretty successful because I'm about to the point where I see no ich spots on the fish anymore, so I assume it's in the 2nd and 3rd stages of it's cycle where it is getting decimated by the quick cure (here's to hoping.) I have been using half the recommended dosage since I have a few loaches and ottos in the tank and all seems well. I haven't noticed my PH being raised at all by the usage, and everything seems to be the same except my tank turns blue for a short time period after the dosage.

On a different note, I use baking soda in my DIY co2 solution to help stabilize the solution so it will last longer. I have extremely soft water and have to buffer it with epsom salts/baking soda to bring it up to 4 degrees on both.

Matt


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## bms (Feb 19, 2004)

I added quick cure as an ich remedy, for mi fish. I am of the philosophy that if you see it on one fish it is most likely all over the tank, so I do not isolate the fish to avoid the additional stress of moving them from one tank to another, hence I treated the whole tank.

As far as the mix goes... baking soda, as some of you pointed out, helps stabilize the mix and makes it last longer by stopping it from becoming to acid to fast... the purpose of Jello is to make the sugar in the mix available to the yeast little by little, also making the CO2 production more stable. 

You first prepare the jello with additional sugar and put it on the frezzer, once the Jello is done, you put the yeast with water on top of the jello, in this way the yeast has acces only to the sugar on the surface of the jello... and as the jello becomes liquid to the rest of the sugar.

There are a couple of sites I found on google that talk in more detail about the mix, but that is basically the principle.

I added a second bottle and that seems to have stabilize the PH, it seems like the mix had gone bad.

Now I have other problems... but that's another story


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