CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

Well I have been having constant problems with my red devils and other cichlids not breeding. Also been a lot of slow growth in my grow out tanks. Well finally got around to testing my water, just assumed it would be the same as my old house(1/4 mile away). Well I definitly met the saying for assumtions. My pH out of the tap is 6.2, about. Well I am trying to figure out how I am going to deal with keeping my pH stable and I don't want to be going through that 7.0 buffer like there is no tomorrow. Was thinking a few lbs of crushed coral in the sump would help but that is going to try to push the pH to about 8.0 so that is going to swing my pH and just cause more problems. Surpisingly my Devils are about to breed even in those conditions. Any ideas would really help, never had to deal with pH issues, always been lucky or used an RO, which isn't an option this time.

O also dealing with hardness isn't a problem I have well over a 150lbs of bog wood and my water is quite soft right out of the tap.

Thanks for the responses.
JR

You said the pH is 6.2 out of the tap, but what is it IN THE TANK?? Also what is the hardness KH/GH at??

Some water when left out of say, 20 min settles and the pH should come up some.. IF the hardness is high enougth to stablilize the pH that is.. Hardness, GH general hardness, needs to be at least 8dGH, drops per till color change OR 143.2ppm to be able concedered saft enought to stableize the pH.. NOW KH needs to be lower than the GH by 2dGH or more or the pH wil come crashing down..  I take it you know all this??  IF not here is a great link to explain it to you..

http://www.automatedaquariums.com/tech2o.htm
AND then this one too:
http://www.drhelm.com/aquarium/chemistry.html

BUT before you go and look.:::   YOU  have a lot of bogwood in this tank.. NOT only does wood make the pH drop, it also softens the water to do so.. That means it is messing with your GH/KH and that is not good if you are to have a higher pH, you need to remove this wood.. Or at least most of it.. RD should spawn fine in this water..  Buffering may be the only way you are going to get to a higher pH but you don't have far to go.. their is a home made buffer and it is cheap to use make..  Most of these cichlids like a 6.4 to 7.0 and the GH/KH only needs to be 3 to 4dGH or higher but stable to have a steady pH..  Make sence??  YOU have had an RO and know what it does.. with my RO unit to stableize my pH I have to add in some regular tap water, about 5 gal in a 30 gal barral,  to bring up the hardness so my pH does not crash later..

Any way check out the link.. if you want the buffer recipie, I wil get that for you too..

Good idea to get a pH reading in the tank.  I use the crushed coral for buffering.  Start with a modest amount and see what happens.  Easy to add more if you don't guess right.

Well then crushed coral it is. Did you see a swing in pH when you did water changes? Just wondering because my bioload is pretty heavy at this point and I am doing a water change about every 2 weeks to keep my nitrates at a decent point. O no ammoina or nitrites, my tank is well established.

My pH in the tank is same as tap.

Well, I'm not the chemistry expert here, but it seems to me that if your pH in the tanks is the same as that from the tap, you're probably handling the bioload OK.  Mine comes out of the tap at an even 7, and I've messed with the crushed coral till I'm staying in the mid-7's in my Centrals' tanks.  I do a little more vigorous water change regimen -- 50-70% twice a week.  I'm not preaching it as a gospel, but I've been pleased with the results.  Plenty of people have been doing it more along your lines for years with good results.  I don't do Midas, so Barb's advice there is probably more reliable.

Crushed coral is a good start to increase the hardness which in turn wil increase the pH.. but you stil have all that bog wood in the tank and that may keep it down even with the crushed coral.. To get the effects of the crused coral, you need to place it in the filter be hind the pad( infront facing you) so the debri can be caught by the filter media pad and not get caught in the crevices of the coral.. it takes time for the hardness to accumilate in the water and the water changes are going to knock this down alot as their is NO way to do the exchange water with out buffers.. YOU dont' need much of an increase 2 to 3 pH levelds at most..Unsure on how long this takes, IF you only do bi-weekly water changes this might work better at getting your hardness up.. testing every other day may be what you need to do TO SEE how much this is helping and how fast...

Stillearnin may have a better solution for you to try..

On water changes, I have to do weekly with only 2 in a 75 gal tank I have more room for more waste to hide in around the nesting pot and her cave structure.... I keep the gravel at 1" so I can clean it better and the waste does not get to traped... As the tank has gotten bigger, even with two emperors running their waste is heavy and just sinks and stays put.. Bigger cichlids, bigger waste.. What a deal!! 

well I have a sand bottom, love it being that most of the waste sit on the surface for easy cleaning. My bioload isn't what is causing me pH problems, it this dang city water, really causing problems. My girlfriends works at the local university so I had her run some test on my water, gah it was bad. REALLY high levels of heavy metals and other things you just don't want in your drinking water. Thinking my RO just maybe the best bet and deal with the waste water some how. Going to be like 600gallons of waste water a month, ugh. I talked to my boss at work(owner of the fish store), he is the one that suggested crushed coral. 

I just need to level out this pH, my red devils will breed in some pretty bad water, so just getting it up a couple points should be enough.