# is flourite gravel lowering my Ph?



## apisto420 (Apr 24, 2010)

just wondering of flourite gravel lowers the ph... something in my tank is lowering my ph... could it be the gravel or does malasian wood lower ph? or could it be my phyphon being so dirty(black inside tube) that it lowers the ph when i do a water change?


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

I would suspect the wood first. 

Put a handful of your substrate in a glass of water and test it every few days for a week and see what happens. 

What is the KH and GH of the tap and tank?

Test the pH of the tap water:
Put some water in a glass and test right away, then let that glass sit out overnight. Test the pH again at 24 hours and at 48 hours. Some tap water pH changes by itself.


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## apisto420 (Apr 24, 2010)

Diana said:


> I would suspect the wood first.
> 
> Put a handful of your substrate in a glass of water and test it every few days for a week and see what happens.
> 
> ...


good plan. will try that.

not sure what the KH, GH of the tap and tank is, i lost my book for my kit.. i should pick one up, i geuss the KH and GH must be realy important for planted tanks? since everyone asks me about it. will the KH, GH effect the PH any how?


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## dhavoc (May 4, 2006)

pretty sure its the wood also. flourite black is pretty much inert. i use it in my sulawesi tanks, and even with pure ro, it does not affect ph/gh, which is what i want. a good planted tanks sustrate it is not, IME.


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## apisto420 (Apr 24, 2010)

didnt check the ph of the substrate yet. dont wanna reach my arm down there.

but i picked up the API GH/KH tester and only got 1 drop each. thats a good thing for planted tanks right? ph is low about 6. kinda weird its only 1 drop each, i think i may of got a faulty kit


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Sounds to me like your water is extremely soft (0-1 kH and gH) and therefore the tannic acids coming off the driftwood are lowering your pH.

Personally, I'd buffer the tank. There's different ways to go about it; you can add some crushed coral/oyster shell etc to your filter or under your substrate and/or mix in a little baking soda to help maintain a stable kH around 2-3 degrees.

Very important to maintain stability for the fish, so if you do go about making any changes, you need to be sure that you don't start getting water parameter fluctuations when you go to do water changes. Means you'll need to premix water to the right hardness before adding it back to the tank.

Of course, if this is an Apisto tank, many of them will love the acidic, tannin-stained water...


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## Carson Albright (Apr 1, 2010)

I used crushed coral in my tank to keep a stable ph, it works wonders. If you dont have a big tank you dont need much. It pretty simple too


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