Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I've added a gallon of vinegar slowly over a week into my 60 gallon system and my ph keeps coming back up to about 8.0 in a days time. So I recently bought a test kit for KH and GH because my test strips were showing my hardness was over what the strips could read. After doing the first test my KH had about 12 drops to change color or about 200 ppm KH and my GH was over 20 drops I decided to give up before I just filled the test tube with the test solution.

So my question is if I keep adding vinegar to bring down Ph it will slowly use up the carbonates causing my Ph to continually rise back up but my GH will always be the same until the plants use up all the nutrients right? Im still pretty new but that's what it seems from the you tube videos and forums I've read. Am I right or way off?

The thing about using vinegar as an acid is that its also a food source for bacteria.. so any benefits of the ph drop will soon be counteract by the alkaline components excreted by the bacteria bloom in your system.. by chance u notice any foaming after u added the vinegar even if its for a short time.?

No I've never had any foaming. Is there something else I should use then to bring down ph? I used lime juice once but someone told me that its antibacterial so it could kill the bacteria you need for aquaponics.

just use muratic acid... add to top up water till your top up water is around ph6 thwn add that to system.. you can also try adding 2 to 3 drops into your slump so it can dilute before it reaches your ft.. just never add it before it enters GB.. plants doesn't respond well to ph shocks

Hey... did it work? I have similar problem with Ph.