Low ph

[Fishface4]

I am having trouble keeping my ph up. I am dosing Seachem ph buffer. It brings the ph up but only for a day. The directions say once a week or two weeks should be sufficient.

 

Its a 20 gal. tank. Lots of ls and lr. The tank has been set up for over 2 years and I just started testing for ph levels.

 

how often are you using a buffer to maintain ph.

 

Thanks

[Physh1]

You should be testing your water to know how often and how much to be dosing. Sounds like your alkalinity is low, which will cause some problems keeping your ph up. An alkalinity buffer is what it sounds like you need. That is where I would look first.

 

Cameron

[Xavier]

Calcium and Magnesium levels also affect the ability to keep pH stable... but personally, I think if you can get the level stable at something close, but constant, it's better then variably dead-on...

[Brooklyn Johnny]

Fishface4 at a minimum you should be testing also for alkalinity and calcium on top of pH if you are adding a buffer. A listing of these levels would help understand what's going on. FWIW your tank could have a low alkalinity as Cameron mentioned but could also have too high an alkalinity. Adding any of those buffers will have the short term effect of raising your pH, but that does not mean more is better, as in the long term the buffer only keeps alkalinity raised. I may be going too far here, but I just want to make sure you realize that you cannot discuss pH without discussing alkalinity. HTH...

 

Johnny