Hellllpppppppppp KH & Ph issues.

[Georgiapeach88]

Ok so as a newbie back in April I had horrid ph issues with like super low kh in my tap. Well I had combated that for months until few days ago. I had used crushed coral in my filters and in media bags in my tank. It kept my ph @ 7.2 ish well fast forward to this last wk. and boom flat out at a 6 when I reslized my cycle had a hiccup. The bacteria bloom has stated to clear still struggling to get the darn kh back up so I can get my ph up again. My lfs is kinda helpful but yet not.

**My question for you folks is. Can I add something like  Seachem® Reef Carbonate To help raise kh in a freshwater planted tank? Has any one ever tried it . The gentleman at my local store said I can use the liquid reef calcium additive to boost that for my guppies and snails. But I found the carbonate additive later online. I just hate having suck low KH. I got to many fish and fry to worry about abs snails to wait for my coral to slowly get me back up. After adding a tad more to tank. 
mall my fish are unhappy and I don’t want to loose them. 

Edited October 2, 2021 by Georgiapeach88

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Hi there @Georgiapeach88, 

If you're going that route Seachem makes Alkaline Buffer which targets pH to 7.2-8.5. I have used it in the past for my tanks and added less than a teaspoon and it brought my pH/kH up to an acceptable level (I was having more of a kH problem than pH and I was using crushed coral in the substrate). From what I see the Reef version aims for a much higher pH. 

[Georgiapeach88]

On 10/2/2021 at 8:03 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

Hi there @Georgiapeach88, 

If you're going that route Seachem makes Alkaline Buffer which targets pH to 7.2-8.5. I have used it in the past for my tanks and added less than a teaspoon and it brought my pH/kH up to an acceptable level (I was having more of a kH problem than pH and I was using crushed coral in the substrate). From what I see the Reef version aims for a much higher pH. 

Gotcha yea that was my concern Bc I know I’d kh rose ph will automatically. I would love to stay 7.3-7.6 Bc that’s what all my community babies are use to. 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

That's what I usually have around 7.6. I added maybe a quarter to a half teaspoon at most and it brought my kH back to 2 (it was at 0) and pH to 7.6 (it was at 7 which was fine I was just concerned about the kH)

Edited October 3, 2021 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[Georgiapeach88]

On 10/2/2021 at 8:10 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

That's what I usually have around 7.6. I added maybe a quarter to a half teaspoon at most and it brought my kH back to 2 (it was at 0) and pH to 7.6 (it was at 7 which was fine I was just concerned about the kH)you awesome thank you. I have two tanks that stay lower in ph at 7.2-7.3 ish Bc I got wrong substrate in beginning thanks to big box store selling my ph lowering substrate and I was so new I didn’t think anything of it will I was months in and battling cycling issues and ph issues... The rest of my tanks are reg eco complete substrate and stay at 7.6 ph. But still 2 kh