bluebelle Posted January 28, 2012 Report Share Posted January 28, 2012 Does anyone know if Seachem Flourish Excel lowers ph? Done water changes, ph still 6.2 I only use rainwater. Fish and plants are happy, snails are not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liljohn_83 Posted January 28, 2012 Report Share Posted January 28, 2012 kinda need allot more info stcking /filtration / occupents / all teast readings Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Tech Den Posted January 28, 2012 Report Share Posted January 28, 2012 especially kH reading and are you doing anything in the way of CO2 for your plants? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brengun Posted January 28, 2012 Report Share Posted January 28, 2012 A bit of epsoms salts and bicarb soda will bring up the ph for you. This rainy dark sort of weather, my tank readings are just naturally showing a little slight drop in ph. I have a bit of coral bits tucked up the back near a filter so it will buffer enough to combat ph crashes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zuthdahr Posted January 28, 2012 Report Share Posted January 28, 2012 Flourish excel shouldn't lower the pH as it doesn't produce an acid during breakdown. If you're dosing CO2 then this could be the cause, given enough time. Another possibility may be if you're heavily planted, and with lower light the plants will be photosynthesising less, and respiring more - producing more CO2, and creating a drop in pH. Check the pH of your rainwater source as well - it's probably slightly acidic - perhaps 6.8. But has little buffering capacity on its own. Hope this helps sourcing the cause. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerbeer Posted January 28, 2012 Report Share Posted January 28, 2012 Rainwater has nothing in it other than what it picks up on the way over your roof and down your pipes. Hence it is typically very soft and pH neutral. From there it is very easy to drop the pH and hard to raise the pH. So ofcourse your pH drops with plants and fish doing what plants and fish do. I believe without looking it up that excel is a alternate carbon source to CO2 for the plants, hence plants are using carbon sources and dropping pH. As bren said you can keep the pH stable by putting some sort of calcium bicarbonate in your tanks (shells or coral). You could use Seachem neutral buffer to build some hardness, you could DIY a mix of sodium biphosphate and sodium bicarbonate. However if the fish and platns are happy - are you happy, or do you really want happy snails. I ask the question cause I am not a snail lover. Giving more info will help us give you better advice back and by the way WELCOME! You will find lots of fish nerds here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
