Best way to raise pH

[BlueLineAquaticsSC]

My tap water is around 6pH and very hard. I would like to raise it to 7.5. What’s the best way to keep parameters stable and raise the pH, I’ve add a bunch of aragonite and crushed coral and it took it to 6.8.

[TheSwissAquarist]

You can buy some chemical pH buffers at pet stores…maybe just add some more crushed coral/aragonite?

[Lennie]

If it is already very hard, and it is acidic, the crushed coral will dissolve even more and more until the ph raises so it will be very very hard water.

If you really wanna boost just ph, get products that only boost ph but increase it slowly.

otherwise most other products like crushed coral not only affect the ph but also the hardness. Barely any fish like very hard water, so u will try to get away from low ph but end up having another problem on your hand instead

[Mmiller2001]

Stop using crushed coral and argonite and use potassium carbonate. No reason to push calcium through the roof.

[RennjiDK]

On 5/28/2023 at 4:15 PM, Mmiller2001 said:

Stop using crushed coral and argonite and use potassium carbonate. No reason to push calcium through the roof.

Add an air stone as well. Excessive co2 build up in the surrounding air will cause ph to drop rapidly in a tank. This is something reefers have know for years, due to holiday parties and ph probe alarms going off. Adding sufficient oxygenation can boost your ph almost a whole unit.

[nabokovfan87]

Seachem Alkalinity buffer is very easy to use.

If you have white substrate or like the look, then crushed coral is an option as well.

Depending on what your KH is, you want to raise up the KH and then use that as your metric for adjusting PH. Because your PH is low, you don't really know what your PH actually is... meaning, that you might just be testing after your PH has crashed due to bioload.

If your KH is 0 then the low PH makes sense. If your tank is stocked a bit high and your KH is generally low, like in the 40s, then it would also make sense as to why it's crashing.

Test things from the tap, make sure you're changing enough water to avoid old tank syndrome.