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Post by twoluvcats on Nov 13, 2004 23:39:54 GMT -5
My snail nursery tank is reading 8.3...my tap water is 8.0. The tank is about 3 weeks old, quick-cycled with seeded media, sponge filtered, and inhabited by snails only. i use prime conditioner, and I add 1ml of calcium at every water change. The snails food has eggshells in it, and calcium added to it? It started out at 8.0 for about a week, but has now started creeping up.
Could the calcium be driving up the pH? Or the food? both?
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Post by marcusbacus on Nov 14, 2004 15:18:53 GMT -5
some gravels made of shells are used to raise the pH, probably it's the calcium.
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Post by amanichen on Nov 14, 2004 18:35:47 GMT -5
1. Outgasing of CO2
2. Presence of ammonia (ammonia + water = ammonium + hydroxide)
3. Calcium: while calcium itself does not actually affect the pH of water, it is commonly found along with a chemical called carbonate, which, has a certain significance =)
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Post by twoluvcats on Nov 15, 2004 14:14:47 GMT -5
ok...couple questions from the chemistry-impaired
what would do this in a bare tank?
Sp presence of ammonia has an effect on pH? This tank is "trying" to crash...I am having a mini-cycle after the hatching. Ammonia at is at 0.25ppm.
Does it make any difference that I am using Kent's Marine Calcium, and not a specifically freshwater calcium?
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Post by amanichen on Nov 15, 2004 14:22:37 GMT -5
Carbon dioxide comes in dissolved in most tap water supplies. Sometimes its level is insignificant and sometimes it is not. CO2 dissolved in water lowers the pH, as it outgases the pH goes up. In short, adding ammonia to water will raise its pH. Part 2 of "advanced water chemistry," under the general aquarium articles has more info: s94779296.onlinehome.us/website/Fish/It may very well be making a difference. I don't know what specific calcium salt they are using, but if it's for marine tanks it may contain carbonate, and in a level that is only appropriate for high pH tanks. Generally you can't just add a metal to water, you need to dissolve its salt into water, and calcium is most often found with carbonate (salt = metallic ion + nonmetallic ion.) Kent might be using phosphate or sulfate or something of the like, or they might just be using carbonate. |
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Post by twoluvcats on Nov 15, 2004 14:27:02 GMT -5
so if i'm going to be adding calcium to my smail tank, i want to find a calcium supplement that uses something besides carbonate? or, once I have an RO system, will this not be as much of an issue?
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Post by amanichen on Nov 15, 2004 14:31:42 GMT -5
so if i'm going to be adding calcium to my smail tank, i want to find a calcium supplement that uses something besides carbonate? or, once I have an RO system, will this not be as much of an issue? Do you know that the calcium supplement has carbonate in it, or is that a guess? www.reefsplendor.com/pages/kent/kent.htmlThis lists the "liquid calicum" as having calcium chloride, which, while being more appropriate for marine tanks, won't really do anything to the pH in a freshwater tank. One thing you can do for now is test the pH of the following: 1. freshly drawn tap water 2. 24 hour old tap water which has been agitated. That'll give you an idea of what the CO2 content does to the pH of the water. At any rate, if the ammonia level has been elevated recently, that's probably the most significant factor in the pH increase. |
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Post by twoluvcats on Nov 15, 2004 14:33:54 GMT -5
I'm guessing about the carbonate at this point...I'll know when I get home for sure.
and I'll start the pH tests when I get home too
I'm assuming that 0.25ppm of ammonia is not going to make that big of a change in pH, alone. Valid assumption?
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Post by amanichen on Nov 15, 2004 14:36:18 GMT -5
You were too quick =)
Read my edit above ^^^
Actually, yes, it will. This is of course without me actually doing the math to prove it, because I really don't feel like it now =)
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Post by twoluvcats on Nov 15, 2004 17:01:38 GMT -5
oh, no need to do the math, i believe you  (and prob wouldn't understand it all anyway LOL) You'd think that because I'm not having high pH issues in any of my other tanks (using the same water, out of the same tap) that the culprit is most likley the ammonia. So will the pH levels drop with the ammonia, or will the pH come down slower? |
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Post by amanichen on Nov 15, 2004 17:24:58 GMT -5
It will drop at a speed proportional to the ammonia consumption. But yes, if you can pick up a change in ammonia, theoretically you should be able to pick up a proportional pH change.
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