Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

[font=Times New Roman] [/font] I have a spa and I use spa down for pH adjustment. This is sodium bisulfate. I am starting a 20 gallon aquarium and my well water has pH about 8.6. Can I use the spa down to adjust pH to 7.0? What are the best chemicals for adjusting pH in ponds, tanks, and aquariums?

Sodium Bisulfate or Sodium Monophosphate are fine to use to lower your pH. It would be good to know what buffering your water has, too. High buffering will keep pH from changing radically. I killed a lot of fish by trying to move my 7.6 pH water with high buffering down to below 7.0 (South American cichlids). I finally learned that it was better to leave the pH alone and stop bouncing it around. That caused more stress than leaving them at 7.6. However, 8.6 sounds a bit high. Just go slowly. There are some good threads on pH and buffering around here somewhere.

Good or bad thats what I use to drop my ph. I just go slowwww.

Thanks Janet and John.
At least I won't kill fish. I am getting ready for fish. Adjust pH and activate nitrifying bacteria. Using 5 milliliters of household ammonia to feed the bacteria. When I see ammonia and nitrite dissappear, then I will get the fish in. A few channel catfish. This is to get a good batch of bacteria to start my aquaponic system in March.

Sounds like a good plan, be advised that the ph down may also affect your waters buffering capacity so do some thinking on what you will need to maintain that buffering. You have plenty of time to make a good fish home by March.
What brand of ammonia have you found to use? I looked for some in the stores and had no luck most had added smells and such.

I have 'Rooto' professional quality 10% ammonia (300% stronger than household). This company is about 50 miles from my house. It cost $1.47US per quart at ACO hardware. ACO is a national hardware chain, but I wonder if my local ammonia company is used nation wide.

My calculation for this concentrated ammonia is that 7.56 ml will setup 10ppm in a 20 gallon tank. I think I will use 5 ml.

Although safe to use i personally reccomend against it, especially on start up! EB will veryify the dramas i've had with my system until recently due to algae growth. Had me stumped until i "remembered" that its the phosphate that make the algae go nuts, and that i had "tampered" with my ph with a phosphate buffer. Even when i had ZERO nitrates the visibility due to algae was lucky to be one inch! i basically had to effect a 90% water change (lemon tree and dirt garden looking stunning ) to get it under control again.

Use hydrochloric acid (pool grade should be fine).

Regarding loosing the buffering capacity, while possibly true, it could also be that your ph is so high due to very high KH (carbonate hardness) which is the "buffering that we're talking about.

Have fun

Steve

Steve
You mean the monophosphate. Any objection to sodium bisulfate?
You grow veggies on the water. So what phosphate levels are good enough for veggies and less than algae blooms? That info would help me. Some people say the fish food has insufficient phosphorus and others say it is enough. I am getting confused??

As long as we're talking water chemistry, what do people use to increase buffering? I could add a commercial aquarium buffer, but I hoped there was something lying around the house that I could use. After addition of crushed shell/coral, my water is:

pH 7.0 (up from 6.4)
buffering 80 (or a little less)
hardness 120 (or a little more)

I am sooooo confused! I thought you just put the fish in the water and they swim!.....

DT,

no objection to the sodium bisulphate.

The mono phosphate might be ok later on in the systems life as it adds phosphorous and when your plants are fruiting this may be a n issue (although joels tommy plant is doing fine with no addition of phosphorous)

All i'm saying is that adding any phosphorous (like i did) in the early stages is a recipe for algae disaster imho.

Janet, USE SHELL GRIT OR SEA SHELLS!!!!!

Easy peasy and it adds calcium too

Steve, Shell grit/sea shells gives a different affect from crushed coral? Now -I'm- sooo confused. The crushed coral that I have already added has not affected the buffering, although I thought it would.

DT, well yes. But they swim even better and the bacteria is happier when the water chemistry is to their liking.

DT
with bad chemistry...a lot of them swim upside down, and later, clog the drain.

I need to read an article on buffering so, someday, I will understand the whole thing. Or maybe my friend Dr. Bob will explain it to me...he is a biochemist and would probably be shocked everyone doesn't know.

Janet, crushed coral shold have done fine. its still CaCO3 just different, um can't thinkn of the word, you know, like carbon and graphite........

Your PH is 7.0, its working fine.

Doug, there are many posts here regarding buffering, i'm not sure if i've put anything into the useful info section, but i may have........yep, check this aticle out http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum ... .php?t=586 and also do a search for buffering and PH and read some of the posts. L:ots of info

Thanks, Steve. I didn't think I was off my rocker. I'm happy with my pH and hardness, it just really suprises me that my buffering is still low. Perhaps I should just be more patient and let it work for a while. The coral is mostly in the bottoms of the grow beds. I've put in a total of 28 pounds (13 kg) for about 120 gal (450 l) to this point. It's been soaking about a week now, but maybe it just needs to soak longer. Patience is a virtue, right?