LEVEL 1B. I am checking the ph in my tank.......?

Question

The ph in my tank is 5.5 and it needs to be 8.0. What if any household product(s) can i use to raise it up to the needed level?

Answer 1

To raise your pH, you can use baking soda (Sodium bicarbonate NaHCO3 ).  This only works for freshwater.

For saltwater you will need sodium carbonate ( Na2CO3).  To turn sodium bicarbonate to sodium carbonate, you need to cook the baking soda in the oven for a period of time.



But for the question above, simply using baking soda will do just fine as ph test kits for saltwater cover a range from 7.0 to 9.0 and raise in odd increments and fresh water pH test kits cover 5.0 to 10.0 in .5 increments . That said, your current pH level and your pH level you are attempting to reach clues me that you are talking about freshwater and not saltwater.

Note: what everyone is missing is that they are not paying attention to the question and offering everything else EXCEPT what the question asked; which was what household item(s) can be used to raise pH.

Answer 2

your tank needs to be 8.1-8.3 if you are talking about a marine tank/salt water tank ,if your talking about tropical then it will be 7.9 at night then at peak as in morning it will be 8.4 but regular water changes are essential to lowel any levels hope this helps you out and good luck  

Answer 3

I don't think you can use any household products to make your ph but, what u can do is go to a fish store or petsmart etc.. and get a product called PH UP (by API)

Answer 4

Yes you can use Baking Soda and that's not bad, but what's better is for you to use Crushed Coral or Limestone.  These will add in hardness buffers which will in turn raise the PH.  Products like PH do not treat the real issue supporting the PH, which is hardness value.  PH up and down typically radically lower or raise a PH only to see it bounce back to the levels it was before because the hardness is not at the proper levels to support the new PH.

If this is an already occupied tank, then you must proceed with caution.  Massive or large PH swings are going to send your fish into shock.  If this is an unoccupied tank, then you can move on this faster.

I keep African cichlids so I need a PH level close to what you are getting and I do so by using African Rift Lake Salts made by SeaChem and it works out great.  API also makes a product called Buffer Max and either one of these will work.  There's a third option out there I never have tried but in terms of salt water tanks I know they use this, Kalkwasser.  I can't say how well this might work because I've never tried it, and outside of that, I'm totally confused why anything about salt water should be talked about here.  

Try adding in crushed coral, see how rapid that works.  If you want, use the Rift Lake Salts or Buffer max in conjunction with your water changes.  Here's another product worth your time to look over.  I use these as well, and they are superb at keeping your tank at optimal levels once you get it stable.  Wonder Shells.

You can find Wonder Shells and African Lake Salts on this page.

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/...

Your LFS should have crushed coral on hand.  Make sure you get a tester to look into your GH and KH levels before proceeding.

No John D I SAW it, but I'm offering a complete answer here.  I already said yes you can use baking soda, but the amount of baking soda needed to adjust that up to 8.0 is going to be significant, PLUS I think what the asker isn't realizing is that hardness is the supporting factor, and thus there is going to be an issue with the tap water, because that's where it's comming from.

The wonder shells should address this very effectively and allow a slow dissolve over time so that when the new tap comming in lacking the hardness, and thus would otherwise lower the PH value back down, he won't have this occur.  I'm just looking outside the box sir.

Answer 5

what do you have in your tank other than gravel? how big is the tank? please provide more information.

first of all, absolutely do not put in any household products. most of them would cloud your water, kill your fish, or do a strange combination of the two.

If you have a freshwater tank, which ill go ahead and assume you do, then you may have some seashells or something in your tank. tank them out, they raise the pH. you could add in some plants, they should raise the pH a little. Peat can raise pH, too, but I've never used it. you can look into using Peat on google, its usually just a plant fertilizer.