# Raising pH and kH and mystery snail



## mingking (Mar 7, 2016)

My pH in my 30 g tank has always been acidic/low (or high... this pH business is confusing) at 6.4. But my fish are fine and I know how tricky raising pH can become. At my store, we raised our pH without a buffer and within a day, half of our stock died. Huge mistake. We're learning! 

Yesterday, I got a mystery snail and I know they need a pH of at least 7. Are there safe products out there to use to raise my pH? My kH is pretty non-existent as well. 

I currently have two bettas (separated), 3 guppies, tetras, Cory catfish, and red cherry shrimp in my planted tank. And now a mystery snail who is going to town eating my frogbit! 

All advice much appreciated! 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## ryry2012 (Mar 31, 2015)

Some people use crashed coral. I don't know how much but I believe they keep it in the filter. Baking soda also raise pH and KH. 


KH is not very important. Bacteria consume KH, so it will get low in the tank anyway. GH is much more important. 


That's all I know.


----------



## seemsligit (Nov 24, 2016)

snails need harder water or some source of minerals to continue making their shells (same for shrimp at a smaller scale). acidic water can slowly over time erode their shells. 

i've seen some people use those plaster vacation feeders to give their snails calcium, but I'm sure your success with that might very. 

as for long term, some people use crushed coral in their substrate to raise the hardness of their water, I had just plain seashells in my water and it was raising the hardness (which as my water already is hard, it was to a near stupid degree). some people also suggest using limestone, which is usually looked down on because it can leech things into the water, but in this case it might be what you want (you should look into that more closely)

some people have found they can clean eggshells and feed them to their snails but i haven't tried it myself.


----------



## ryry2012 (Mar 31, 2015)

Why I forgot... Some people use cuttlebone as calcium source for aquarium snails. You can buy it at any pet stores as long as they sell bird stuff. You should look into it.


----------



## CometTails (Feb 20, 2017)

seachem has stability it keeps the ph at exactly 7. i dont know if yoh should anything in there when you use it. the ph bouce didnt affect my slim bodie goldfish at all but they are hardy little kids.

Sent from my SM-G928T using Tapatalk


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

Seachem Stability is used to advance tank cycling. Seachem Neutral Regulator is supposed to keep pH at 7.0.

Just my opinion but I don't believe in messing with parameters. Add some cuttlebone to the tank and don't worry about the pH. It's fluctuating pH which is so dangerous to fish. They can adapt to lower or higher than recommended as long as it's stable.


----------



## CometTails (Feb 20, 2017)

Yeah that was the one i was thinking of. sorry for giving out wrong info.

Sent from my SM-G928T using Tapatalk


----------



## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

CometTails said:


> Yeah that was the one i was thinking of. sorry for giving out wrong info.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G928T using Tapatalk


Don't ask me how many times I've done the same.


----------



## cakes488 (Dec 2, 2015)

ryry2012 said:


> Some people use crashed coral. I don't know how much but I believe they keep it in the filter. Baking soda also raise pH and KH.
> 
> 
> KH is not very important. Bacteria consume KH, so it will get low in the tank anyway. GH is much more important.
> ...


What's the symptoms of "bad" GH? How does it effect the fish. ?


----------



## seemsligit (Nov 24, 2016)

cakes488 said:


> What's the symptoms of "bad" GH? How does it effect the fish. ?


'bad' general hardness heavily depends on what fish you're keeping. with snails though, too soft of water can cause their shells to dissolve. higher hardness has less of a chance of their shells dissolving because there's already minerals in the water. with bettas, harder water can make their fins curl, giving them a bedragged look. im sure there's an ideal between the two for both snails and bettas but i don't know the actual number.


----------



## ryry2012 (Mar 31, 2015)

seemsligit said:


> 'bad' general hardness heavily depends on what fish you're keeping. with snails though, too soft of water can cause their shells to dissolve. higher hardness has less of a chance of their shells dissolving because there's already minerals in the water. with bettas, harder water can make their fins curl, giving them a bedragged look. im sure there's an ideal between the two for both snails and bettas but i don't know the actual number.


Well said.




cakes488 said:


> What's the symptoms of "bad" GH? How does it effect the fish. ?


http://www.apifishcare.com/pdf/GH_and_KH_Test_Kit_and_KH_Test_Kit_58-59_Insert.pdf
GH shock could kill fish. Wild caught are more sensitive to GH while tank bred are more adjustable. You can see what range is good for a specific specie at SeriouslyFish website.


----------

