Maintaining a stable pH is crucial for a healthy aquarium environment.
And before you adjust your pH, you should ask yourself: does it need any adjustment?
Most tank bred fish are capable of adapting to a wide range of pH and if there are no signs of discomfort, you shouldn’t modify the pH of the water.
However, if your pH is low and you need to be raised, it is recommended to use these safe methods to raise and maintain a stable pH.
What Causes Low pH in an Aquarium?
Let’s start by diagnosing the main factors that contribute to a low pH levels in aquarium water.
Improper Maintenance
Usually, poor maintenance is the culprit behind low pH in an aquarium.
When fish waste and uneaten food accumulate in the aquarium, they decompose and release more nitrate (NO3-). Nitrate is acidic. So, the more it builds up in the water, the more it decreases the pH down.
Doing routine maintenance on your aquarium each week is usually the most effective way to ensure a healthy pH level.
Check Your Tap Water
We highly recommend that you check the pH of your tap water. If your tap water has a good pH, simply performing regular water changes should to bring up the pH in your tank.
You can perform 50% water changes every other day until the water in the aquarium reaches a good range. Once the pH has stabilized, you can typically maintain healthy water parameters by doing 50% water change per week.
Tannins
Another thing that can lower your pH is decor that leaches tannins. Tannins are organic compounds that plants produce to protect themselves from fire, insects and microorganisms.
Tannins are acidic and can lower pH in your aquarium.
Driftwood is the most common source of tannins in the aquarium. As it releases them into the water, resulting in brown water and lowered pH levels.
So, if you notice a slight brown in your aquarium water and a drop in pH, it’s likely that something in the tank is putting off tannins.
We highly recommend boiling driftwood to help release tannins before putting it in the aquarium. If the wood has a high amount of tannins, the water will turn brown, similar to boiling tea leaves.
If the water turns a really dark brown, dispose of it and boil it again with fresh water. Repeat this procedure until the water remains clear.
If the driftwood is too large to boil, soak it in salty water (½ cup of salt per gallon of water) for 1-5 days. This should remove a lot of the tannins and help prevent them from affecting tank parameters.
Poor Aeration
If there is any buildup of CO2 from fish respiration in the water column, this can lower pH. This is one of the reasons that it is why you should consider using a filter in your aquarium.
A lack of aeration is one of the reasons why unfiltered Betta tanks may have a very low pH.
Filters help move water around the aquarium and agitate the surface, allowing for better gas exchange.
You can also increase aeration by using an aquarium air pump with an airstone. The bubbles increase water flow and surface agitation.
Is Low pH Bad for Fish?
Yes, severely low pH is bad for fish. But, what exactly defines “low pH?”
When we say low pH, what we mean is below 6.5. There are some species that do best in water that is really acidic, but the vast majority of fish you will encounter in the aquarium trade don’t like the pH that low.
Also, when the pH is below 6.5, the water typically doesn’t have the buffering capacity to stop the pH from crashing even lower.
But, if your pH is 7.0, but you read an article that says the species of fish you’re keeping prefers a pH of 7.5, trust me, you don’t need to try and add chemicals or filter media to increase your pH.
Most fish can deal with a wide range of parameters, provided that you acclimate them carefully, change the water regularly and keep your water parameters steady.
It cannot be overstated enough: maintaining stable conditions in your aquarium will lead to greater success than constantly altering your water parameters in an attempt to figure out the “perfect” numbers you read about in an article somewhere.
When you see bloggers talking about “ideal” water parameters, things like pH, KH and GH, those figures are based on the conditions from the fish’s natural habitat.
But, the overwhelming majority of fish you deal with in the hobby have been tank raised for many generations and therefore can adapt to most conditions found in home aquariums.
More often than not, fish has the ability to adapt to a wide range of parameters.
The key elements are providing a well cycled aquarium, a steady temp and routine maintenance that keeps your nitrates below 30 ppm.
To clarify, it’s probable that there’s no need to raise the pH level in your tank.
How To Raise Your Aquariums pH
If you’re still determined to do it, here’s the safest possible way safely. In general, we do not suggest the chemicals you see on store shelves. They can be the cause of massive swings in your pH and then wear off within a few days.
Water Changes
If high nitrate in your tank is the cause of pH drop, the best treatment is changing out the aquarium water. You can perform 50% water changes on daily basis until the pH comes back up.
Pro TipOnce you’ve got the pH under control, you can sustain healthy parameters by changing 50% of the water every week to get rid of nitrates and add in clean water.
Baking Soda
Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate NaHCO₃) increases the pH and KH of water.
You may add 1 teaspoon of baking soda per 5 gallons (19 liters) of water. however, keep in mind that most aquariums contain a bunch of other substances in them that takes up space and reduce the amount of water in the tank.
To illustrate, a 10 gallon tank with substrate and decor will hold less than 10 gallons of water.
We recommend that you proceed with caution and go slowly.
Add doses, then wait up to two days, and then add more, until your desired pH is achieved.
To maintain that pH level, you’ll have to add more baking soda every time you conduct a water change.
Pro Tip Be extremely careful when performing water changes to the pH of your aquarium with any kind of chemical. Making large changes to your pH in a short period of time can be detrimental might even kill your fish. we recommend that you make small adjustments over time.
Crushed Coral/Aragonite Sand
Both crushed coral and aragonite sand are composed from the same material: calcium carbonate. The only real difference is that crushed coral comes in bigger pieces, like really jagged gravel, and aragonite sand is composed of much smaller particles.
To increase KH, GH, and pH in your aquarium, there are a couple of options. One is to add crushed coral in a bag to your filter or use aragonite sand as a substrate. Both will release carbonate and calcium into the water, which will naturally increase KH, GH, and pH levels over time.
In our opinion, aragonite sand is the best substrate option for African cichlids. As minerals are gradually released over time, the pH level is raised in a stable and secure manner. Additionally, cichlids enjoy digging around in the sand. Furthermore, there is no need for you to add anything every time you perform a water change because the sand will take care of it for you.
Don’t Chase pH!
Again, we would really like to emphasize that maintaining a stable pH is much more important than trying to achieve the “perfect” pH.
Most often, routine water changes is all that’s needed to maintain a healthy pH, remove wastes and add back in clean water.
Altering the pH level excessively with chemicals can be much more detrimental than you might anticipate.
I can’t even count how many horror stories I’ve came across over the years on forums of someone claiming that they added pH up, but then it went all extremely high, and therefore they had to add pH down, but then it went way too low, so they added more pH up, and now all the fish are dead.”
Maintaining a Stable and Steady is so much safer and better than constantly trying to adjust it to achieve an imaginary “perfect” numbers.
If you are in need to raise the pH, we highly recommend using crushed coral or aragonite sand. These will naturally buffer the water to a higher pH over time.
