pH problems

[Verna Gross]

After months of battling a low pH (6-6.6) I finally got my KH from 0 to around 5 but now my pH is high at 8 and I am afraid to do much more adjusting for fear of losing fish.  I lost 9 fish in 2 weeks (Blue tilapia) I had my water tested yesterday by the fish farmer I bought them 11 months ago and everything was great except the high pH.  Should I just ignore it and let it drop naturally or will it stay high now that I have a good buffer in the water?  The plants are looking good and producing tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers

[Alex Veidel]

I'm not sure how fast you raised your pH, but fish usually stress out when changes in pH faster than .2 per day occur. 

[Verna Gross]

I raised it over a 1 week period. Haven't had a dead fish for a week and then this am we had one of our largest plate size floating. Gills were bright red and didn't show any signs of disease. pH 7.8 KH 5 temp the same 80 ammonia .5. I'm frustrated and tired of losing fish. They seem to be eating better but still not coming to the top to eat :(

[Verna Gross]

Thank for any suggestions

[Tom Gilkerson]

I had a similar problem a couple of months ago. I added 2 gallons of distilled water to my 150 gallons of system water. Haven't had any problems since then. PH is about 6.6-6.8.

[Alex Veidel]

Fish hanging out at the bottom of the tank is a sign that they could be stressed out. I've probably mentioned stuff like this before to you, but things like sudden changes in temperature or pH, light levels changing dramatically (flipping the lights on and off frequently) can stress your fish out.

As far as pH goes, I'd get it down to 7.6 and then just let it go down on it's own from there. You've got a good KH level, so things should be pretty stable.

[Verna Gross]

Thanks it is 7.7 today and my KH was 2 so I added the potassium bicarbonate 10t to 250 gal my tomatoes are starting to show the effects of high pH but I'm just going to ride it out focus on the fish needs first

[R.K. Castillo]

I am trying to get some potassium bicarbonate.  The article that Sylvia wrote said to use 2.5 teaspoons of AquaBuffer for every 100 gallons of water but the aquabuffer is all out of stock so I went to Amazon to get the potassium bicarbonate.  Is that the same type of stuff as AquaBuffer?  

And how much of the potassium bicarbonate should we use to raise the KH up about 3 or 4?

[Steve R]

So if your ph is to high its ok to have a low kh until your ph is below 7. That is when you need to buffer your KH up to keep it there.

the stuff on amazon is not food grade like aquabuffer is. 

[R.K. Castillo]

Hey Steve...

This is the one I was looking at.  You can see it here at amazon and it seems food grade.  All of the reviews are talking about how people used it for their health things.  

[Steve R]

why do that when you can get it from the aquaponic source for under 10? http://www.theaquaponicstore.com/AquaBuffer-pH-Stabilizing-Kit-1lb-...

[R.K. Castillo]

Because yesterday they were all sold out! haha  

I get free shipping in Amazon too