A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners
PH too high
I am getting very frustrated. We can't get our PH to stay down. I have been adding acid for 2 days and I know it is our water. I can get it down and than it will come back up. Fish are doing awesome but plants aren't growing well. I have not added any more plants I have pepper plants and they have not grown or died. Does any one (TC) have any suggestions for me. IT is our water but I want to make it work. We have lime stone all around us and they used to mine it behind us. A little about our system is probably 7000 gallons of recirculating water. Most of water added has been rain water. The fish are reproducing well and growing well. I have been adding acid to one of our filter buckets that goes into another container before entering the pool (pond). It is after the grow beds and ibc tanks. Any suggestions are appreciated. My PH is at 8.2 can get it down to about 7.8 and than goes back up
Thanks
Annika
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Keith Rowan on
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honestly, with a system that size, i would not try to mess with the ph, but i would definitely watch for the ph to drop as the system matures, and be ready to buffer if needed
it took my small system over 9 months before the ph dropped from the nitrification process, and your ph will drop as well (as long as your media is neutral).. with a system of 7000 gallons (nice!) it will take a while but it will drop.. 8.2 is fine for cycling, and most fish won't have any problems with it.. you may have to provide your plants with some micronutrients, but that is much easier (and less stressful to the fish) than trying to change your ph
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Permalink Reply by RupertofOZ on
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Trying to lower the pH of your system... which is obviously highly carbonate buffered... is like trying to put out a fire by sneezing on it...
As you will undoubtably at times be adding some top up water... which will also be high pH/carbonate buffered... any pH drop you might acheive... will just be negated...
Treat your top up water to the pH you require... you can be aggressive in doing so... beccause you don't have fish in it....
Over time... by treating your top up water... and the natural acidification due to nitrification... your pH will fall...
Ultimately.. once you exhaust the original carbonate buffer from the volume of the fish tank... you'll then need to begin carbonate buffering the system back upwards...
At that point your source water will work to your advantage... (at that point don't treat the water with acid)
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Permalink Reply by Annika Wallace on
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what would you recommend for the micronutrients. they are still alive but not growing at all ......put out leaves and at one time had blossoms but never went any where
Thanks
Keith Rowan said:honestly, with a system that size, i would not try to mess with the ph, but i would definitely watch for the ph to drop as the system matures, and be ready to buffer if needed
it took my small system over 9 months before the ph dropped from the nitrification process, and your ph will drop as well (as long as your media is neutral).. with a system of 7000 gallons (nice!) it will take a while but it will drop.. 8.2 is fine for cycling, and most fish won't have any problems with it.. you may have to provide your plants with some micronutrients, but that is much easier (and less stressful to the fish) than trying to change your ph
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Maxicrop... or better still Maxicrop+Iron...
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Permalink Reply by John Cubit on
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It really seems that pH is the next biggest problem next to siphon questions. I too have issues with pH as it seems stuck between 9 and 7.5. Bouncing from day to day. I gave up on trying to get it to 7.0 or close to it but I know it is going to take a toll on the plants. After a month I have added fish and here are the readings for the past 3 weeks average
pH 8.5
Ammonia 1.0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
Temp 74
The tank is only 20 gallons feeding a 10 gallon tote with 5 clippings and and assorted bunch bean seeds and lettuce seeds. There are 5 large Comet Goldfish and 2 small Comets in the tank. Lots of oxygen as well as an O2 injector on the drain line. The Ammonia has remained at 1 since a week after it was shocked. Any thoughts on what to do to get water to 7.0-7.5, I am assuming this is why the Nitrite/Nitrate is not changing. Thanks in advance for any advice.
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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair on
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John your system is new and doesn't have a high amount of biologic activity yet. After 3-6 months so you are likely to see your PH start to drop some, however you may never see 7.0 with a starting point of 8.5. Also having a 20 gallon tank you are likely going to have some swings.
John Cubit said:It really seems that pH is the next biggest problem next to siphon questions. I too have issues with pH as it seems stuck between 9 and 7.5. Bouncing from day to day. I gave up on trying to get it to 7.0 or close to it but I know it is going to take a toll on the plants. After a month I have added fish and here are the readings for the past 3 weeks average
pH 8.5
Ammonia 1.0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
Temp 74
The tank is only 20 gallons feeding a 10 gallon tote with 5 clippings and and assorted bunch bean seeds and lettuce seeds. There are 5 large Comet Goldfish and 2 small Comets in the tank. Lots of oxygen as well as an O2 injector on the drain line. The Ammonia has remained at 1 since a week after it was shocked. Any thoughts on what to do to get water to 7.0-7.5, I am assuming this is why the Nitrite/Nitrate is not changing. Thanks in advance for any advice.
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Thanks...I will say the tap water we use has a base pH of 8.0. Well lets see with the bed, it already contains 5 cuttings, 2 tomatoes types (Grape and Roma), 2 hot pepper types (jalapeno and Portuguese), Basil and seeds of 2 types of lettuce as well as several bush bean seeds.
Jonathan Kadish said:John your system is new and doesn't have a high amount of biologic activity yet. After 3-6 months so you are likely to see your PH start to drop some, however you may never see 7.0 with a starting point of 8.5. Also having a 20 gallon tank you are likely going to have some swings.
John Cubit said:It really seems that pH is the next biggest problem next to siphon questions. I too have issues with pH as it seems stuck between 9 and 7.5. Bouncing from day to day. I gave up on trying to get it to 7.0 or close to it but I know it is going to take a toll on the plants. After a month I have added fish and here are the readings for the past 3 weeks average
pH 8.5
Ammonia 1.0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
Temp 74
The tank is only 20 gallons feeding a 10 gallon tote with 5 clippings and and assorted bunch bean seeds and lettuce seeds. There are 5 large Comet Goldfish and 2 small Comets in the tank. Lots of oxygen as well as an O2 injector on the drain line. The Ammonia has remained at 1 since a week after it was shocked. Any thoughts on what to do to get water to 7.0-7.5, I am assuming this is why the Nitrite/Nitrate is not changing. Thanks in advance for any advice.
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