Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks for the update cam! I was curious to know how this worked out.

My tests today
Ph 6.0 or lower
Amonnia 2ppm
Nitrites look to be around 5ppm
I didn't do a nitrate test today


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With a pH that low you're in danger of having the biofilter crash. There is some leeway below pH of 6 but since you can't tell what the pH is

What would you suggest to raise it

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If I added a gallon or two of tap straight from the tap do you think there would be enough chlorine to kill my bacteria

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Decided to do the nitrate test looks like 40-80ppm

I would use Potassium bicarbonate. You can also use Potassium Hydroxide or Calcium Hydroxide. There is a lot of information on this subject posted but if you have problems finding it, let me know. Try to adjust some topup water first and then add this to your system so you don't overshoot too bad.

I think a 10 to 20% addition of tap water would be OK. You shouldn't need to but If you want to reduce the chlorine a bit, use a hard spray of water from the faucet into the transfer container, this should strip some of the chlorine and replace it with air.

Thanks Scotty

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Put in the tap water as far away from the grow beds and your filtration as possible and I'm much more comfortable with 10% than 20%. Water varies and the chlorination isn't necessarily always the same through the year. The spray bit won't work if you have chloramine instead of chlorine.

I added a little bit not much of a change I put some of my old media under my outlet in my grow bed I'll check it tomorrow morning to see if I have any changes. The old media was raising my ph so I removed it

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Sounds good

good thinking Cam.

Maybe even put a tub of it in the flow system somewhere.
One option might be to feed your grow bed water initially into a tub/bucket of it and then overflow that into the grow bed. A cheap tub from the local home warehouse would do the job.

pH 6-6.5 is OK though and wont suddenly kill the system or the fish. I usually see it for long periods here in winter when nitrates build up a bit in the fish tanks and we get a bit of rain. So initially try and creep it up rather than make the fix too quick.


your top up water with approx. 5-10 Gal (20-40 Litres) could also work provided you only have chlorine and not chloromine as Scotty notes. Just do it each day, take out same volume and water pot plants, put in 24hr old water, fill bucket/s and leave for 24 hours. I did this with 2 20L buckets quite easily when had a similar problem (my tap water is pH 7.5 and system sits at pH 6.5-7). One week later and you have changed 15-30% of your FT and the fish wont really notice.

I'll keep you guys posted with my results

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Yesterday's test
Ph 6.0 or below
Amonnia .50 ppm
Nitrites 5ppm or higher
I added 5 gallons of tap water yesterday.
Today's results
Ph 6.8
Amonnia .25 ppm
Nitrites 5ppm or higher
The tap water did the trick it got my ph back up where I want it

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That worked out well and that's probably about as good as you can do. Leave it alone for now and just watch, if the pH goes down to 6 or below again you might need to do the same thing. I'm trying to remember where you're at with this - have you salted to help protect the fish from nitrites? If you haven't you should (1ppt (1gm/L) is usually enough (non-iodized salt (NaCl) without anti-caking agents).