# raising ph



## bopper20 (Mar 14, 2005)

my ph from the tap is close to 7, in my tank I have a diy co2 and I'm now dosing with flourish excel. so what seems to happen is my ph drifts downward.
(I also do every other day water change of about 20%)

I'm wondering - what do people think of adding a shell or calcium based rock
to the tank to help stabalize ph?

thanx


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Your pH will drop with the addition of CO2, that's normal. As long as your kh is 3 or above, you're ok. Do you know your kh? Knowing both will allow you to determine your CO2 concentration in the tank.

Why are you doing water changes every other day? Unless you have an algae issue you're dealing with or some pretty finicky fish, that's overkill. Double your volume of water change and do it once a week. Your life will get a lot easier.


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## bopper20 (Mar 14, 2005)

mostly I've been doing it to control PH. also amano seems to do massive water changes on his small tanks...


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## bopper20 (Mar 14, 2005)

still would like to know - why a sea shell would be bad for a fresh water tank when i WANT to raise ph.
thanx


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## titan97 (Feb 14, 2005)

Sea shells (CaCO3) would raise KH and GH both. An increase in KH will increase your pH. So, if you want to increase your GH as well, use the shells. There is no real downside to using them, except perhaps their time to dissolve, which is long.

-Dustin


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