Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

Basically, the water coming out of the RO unit has buffers in it that are not measure in KH. The ph will not go down in the RO water like it is happening to me.

-Pedro

milalic wrote:Basically, the water coming out of the RO unit has buffers in it that are not measure in KH. The ph will not go down in the RO water like it is happening to me.

Water coming out of a RO filter has no buffers at all, that is the main reason people use it. Either something is wrong with your RO filter or your tests suck

Mustafa wrote about tap water, not RO water.

Jackie,

Read this:

viewtopic.php?t=1306&highlight=sodium+hydroxide

Is kh all that important with shrimp? well i guess it depends what type of shrimp it is but im sure cherries dont care much but i bet crs will..my kh is usually 3-4dkh and gh 3-4dgh

milalic wrote:Read this:

viewtopic.php?t=1306&highlight=sodium+hydroxide

Great thread, I have not been aware of this as I've lived in Europe where water is treated differently. However, is descibes a tank problem opposite to yours. If your RO water has enough buffer to keep the pH around 8, it is strange to me that the tank water pH crashes so dramatically.
Why do you insist your problem is exactly the same as in the thread you mentioned? IMO it would be wise to check your water with a different test. Borrow tests from a friend or take samples of your water to a petstore.

Describe "aquasoil". Do you mean the product of ADA? It does lower the pH, from what I heard. But it is not my personal experience.

I use ADA Aquasoil in all my BEE and CRS tanks. It does bring the ph down to low sixes and sometimes lower! I would say that is what is causing the swings!

milalic wrote: Also, the aquasoil is concentrated in certain area in the tank. How do I remove it without killing my shrimp and other inverts?

If it's concentrated, it should be easy to remove. Just remove a little each day and replace it by normal substrate until everything is gone.

A few thoughts here.
Sodium hydroxide, lye, is indeed a very strong base. So it will certainly raise the pH in a water supply. However, I would think it would be completely removed by an RO unit. RO membranes are supposed to allow only water through, provided of course the membrane isnt worn out. So my thought would be that if you areading a pH much above neutral, you may need to change out your membrane.
So, while lye does buffer the pH, wouldnt calcium crabonates be a better choice for aquriums? In the case of fish, lye certainly isnt going to help in the formation of bone. Or any other functions requiring calcium. In the case of shrimp, I cant for the life of me remember how important calcium is in the fromation of chitin, but I imagine there are plenty of biological processes that require it. So I would definately question thinking pH is the only issue without considering KH as well.

Well, I will remove the aquasoil.

DonD,

The RO unit is just two month old and has been used 4 times.
I spoke with other people in the area and their RO water has a ph higher than neutral. It must be some buffer that the RO unit is not removing.

Thanks

Hey Don,

DonD wrote:So I would definately question thinking pH is the only issue without considering KH as well.

Kh is not important because it does not give you any concrete information. It only measures carbonates and bicarbonates and totally disregards all the other alkalinity builders in the water. Gh, on the other hand, measures Calcium and Magnesium ions. It's a little bit more useful than Kh, but not that much more. It's supposed to give you the "hardness" of your water, but it totally disregards all the other ions in the water. You don't really have to worry about calcium and magnesium because every water supply I am aware of has calcium and magnesium in it. Plus, it's in the food they eat, even if its not specifically mentioned in the ingredients. All I use for my water parameter measurements are an electronic Ph meter, an electronic conductivity/TDS meter and a nitrate liquid test. The conductivity meter is a *much* more useful measure of dissolved ions in the water than Gh, as it measures *all* the ions in the water, not just calcium and magnesium. And when aquatic animals regulate their osmotic pressure, they don't care what kind of ions make up that pressure, they just care about how many.