Help with pH

[Oilers]

Hi,
What is the best way/product to raise the pH level? I just measured the pH of my tank and it's only 7.7. Is it the reason why I found my cleaner shrimp dead this morning? I tested the water and the salinity, nitrate and phosphate numbers are alright. Help please!

[parkinsn]

What is your Alk/Kh level? If your PH is that low you KH is likely low as well

[kien]

Originally Posted by Oilers

Hi,
What is the best way/product to raise the pH level? I just measured the pH of my tank and it's only 7.7. Is it the reason why I found my cleaner shrimp dead this morning? I tested the water and the salinity, nitrate and phosphate numbers are alright. Help please!

Your shrimp may not be dead, he may have just molted and is now hiding.

[Oilers]

My Kh level is 12.
Kien: the shrimp is really dead. It's right at the side of the tank, upside down and didn't move at all the whole morning.

[mattdean]

How long has your tank been set up? If it's fairly new, your PH is fine. Mine was around 7.7 for months. Then it rose on it's own over time. What's most important is that it doesn't fluctuate greatly. As long as it's stable, things should be fine. I doubt it would kill your shrimp unless it dropped quickly.

Alk should definitely be tested as stated above. If the shrimp is dea, I assume you took it out. If it doesn't get eaten quickly it will just rot and poolute the water.

Good luck

[jimbo222]

I'v had the same issue for the past year
7.7 ph with no ill effect's on my shrimp.
Finally last month i found a solution by running a quarter inch hose to the outside and attaching it to my skimmer intake. and now ph is at 8.2 , never seen it this high.
and for some reason my skimmer is pulling twice the amount of goo.

[Oilers]

Matt: The tank was set up a couple months ago. Fairly new.
I removed the dead shrimp, dosed my tank with AragaMilk. I'll measure the pH tomorrow to see if that helps. Thanks for all the replies guys and gals.

[wingedfish]

dosing a 2 month old tank will cause you to rip your hair out.

[Gripenfelter]

Seachem Buffer. Won't let you overdose.

How many fish do you have? Maybe you're over stocked?

[Myka]

pH is the most misunderstood parameter. Don't try to adjust the pH with chemical and additives, all that will accomplish is a short term change, and the pH will drift right back to where it was. Next thing you know alkalinity will be up at 15 dKH and you're still wondering why your pH is low. You can very easily have high alkalinity and low pH. Alkalinity does not directly affect pH.

With your tank being so new, it is not a surprise at all as it takes several months for a tank to settle in. How big is your tank? Are you using a protein skimmer?

the two most common causes of low pH are an inability to off-gas CO2 because either you aren't using a skimmer or your house isn't getting fresh air (can't get rid of CO2 if the skimmer is sucking in CO2), and high bioload (fish poop is acidic).