andrews68

hi i have a problem with low ph can lime stone be used to bring it back up cheers

muttley

Bicarb is what you need mate but I am unsure as to the volume to put in per gallon etc. Anyone???

Matt

Davej

Hiya and welcome

What is the pH and more importantly what is the KH of the pond and the supply.

Sorry for the questions but the KH is the critical factor here- R U comfortable with the role KH plays?.

Dave

andrews68

thanks for your reply the ph level is 6 pushing towards 5 and i havent tested for kh and don't know what it is cheers

Davej

Hiya

You need to sort this speedily, if you put of addressing this there is a real danger you could lose fish.

PH 7 is neutral, anything less than 7 is acidic, above 7 alkaline, You really need the pH of the water to be alkaline.

Think of KH as a little store of alkalinity, when there is none the water will be acidic and will become increasing acidic.

Acidic water ins‘t good for two reasons 1) the filters will not work and you will get a big increase in ammonia and 2) as it becomes more acidic it will damage the fish..

If your pH is below 7 then your KH cupboard is bare, you can either sort this

• by changing some water but this does depend on what KH your supply water has in it hence my question. The KH of tap water varies according to where you live.
• by adding Bicarbonate of Soda; You can get this cheaply in bulk on Ebay, but immediate term you can get if from the supermarket.

Do you have a high ammonia level in the pond? If so you need to take particular care, but whatever you need to address this.

The problem arises if the filters have stopped working and you already have ammonia in the system; keeping it very simple, as you get the pH back to what it needs to be then the ammonia become more harmful to the fish, so you don’t wanna go too mad you just wanna add enough bicarb to get some KH in the water and the pH back to 7.0.

Personally I would source a KH test today from your nearest Aquarium, Garden Centre, fish dealer and stop at a Supermarket on the way home and grab some bicarb.

Test the Kh and then add Bicarb, wait a couple of hours and retest both KH and pH and add more bicarb until you get a KH level of 1 drops and a pH of around 7 .

As a starting point I would add 100g of Bicarb per 1000gallons pond water, you may have to add more but let the KH and pH guide you. If you don’t know the pond volume then take a slowly slowly approach checking the results as you go.

Hope this helps, please come back after you have sorted and we can talk about how to manage things going forward.

Dave