Seiryu Stone Impact On Water Parameters

[Jack CO]

A few months back my tap water changed and I noticed the pH in a couple of my smaller tanks (2.5 and 10 gallons) kept crashing seemingly randomly. After doing some testing I discovered that my KH was extremely low, causing the pH to drop from 7.2 to almost 6 in less than a day. I have since resolved this issue with crushed coral in those tanks, however my two larger tanks (29&60 gallons) haven’t experienced this problem, which I believe to be a result of the seiryu stone I have in these tanks. 
My tap water comes out at 7.2 pH, 2 KH, and 2 GH. I have not tested aged tap water, but I am going to set out some to age today and will update on that. After testing the largest tank today, the parameters within it are 7.2 pH, 3 KH, and 6 GH. The substrate is a layer of gravel capped in pool filter sand and the only other hardscape is Malaysian drift wood. Filtered by 2 larger co-op sponge filters.
Is it true that the seiryu stone is causing the increase, and should I do something else to buffer the KH and GH to prevent a pH crash? I’m wary to add aragonite sand or crushed coral to this tank because it houses my 3 African butterfly fish, which I know prefer more acidic and soft water. 
Thanks for the advice!

[knee]

On 1/11/2024 at 2:53 PM, Jack CO said:

Is it true that the seiryu stone is causing the increase, and should I do something else to buffer the KH and GH to prevent a pH crash?

Yes, seiryu does increase kh and gh and I don't use it because of this issue. Not sure how long it will keep raising the ph but from what I've read at other forums, it's a long time specially if you're trying to achieve a specific ph. So if a ph crash is your only concern, having seiryu in the tank will prevent that. 

[Jack CO]

On 1/11/2024 at 4:36 PM, knee said:

So if a ph crash is your only concern, having seiryu in the tank will prevent that. 

Sounds like I solved my problem on accident then. I appreciate the reply!

[nabokovfan87]

It's a bit of an interesting situation.

Based on the pH being lower, it allows the rock to wear down more and that can cause the water to worn itself more towards neutral.... Which slows down the reaction.

Alright so, the real tidbit here is that seiryu is a product from nature and as such it's not a known change in parameters. That change would alter over time. It would be more beneficial for the sake of a consistent setup to use something like a KH buffer in order to ensure things are consistent. As for a range I would try to shoot for 4 KH as a baseline. That gives you (in my case) a pH of at or around 7 with stability for a lightly  or normal stocked tank.

As you add more waste or organics to the water, then you use the KH up and that results in the potential pH crash.  It's a balance. That's why I keep some KH buffer on hand. I use seachem alkaline buffer but there's household items that do the same thing as well.

On 1/11/2024 at 2:53 PM, Jack CO said:

My tap water comes out at 7.2 pH, 2 KH, and 2 GH. I have not tested aged tap water, but I am going to set out some to age today and will update on that. After testing the largest tank today, the parameters within it are 7.2 pH, 3 KH, and 6 GH. The substrate is a layer of gravel capped in pool filter sand and the only other hardscape is Malaysian drift wood. Filtered by 2 larger co-op sponge filters.

Almost exactly my tap water.

[Jack CO]

 

On 1/11/2024 at 8:44 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

That's why I keep some KH buffer on hand. I use seachem alkaline buffer

I’ll definitely look into it and most likely pick some up. I’m glad to hear that someone with nearly my exact parameters has found a good solution to it. Now that I’ve got my KH problem resolved I might get a group of Snow White bristlenose to grow and breed.