CRS and Air Pump

[Guppy77]

Hi everyone, am very curious as i need to confirm something, as my PH for my CRS is too low, PH is 5.0 on my last measurement, if i get a air pump to bubble the water, will it help to increase the PH? so far my shrimps are doing very well but if can reach ph at 6 to 6.5 it will be better as this will help their breeding right? any bro here breed CRS at 5.0 ph?

temp= 25 degree
kh= 1
gh=4
ph= 5.0
tds=180
THANKS!

[xconnect.]

Ph5 will cause your natural bacteria to die and this will cause ammonia spike.try your best to increase the ph to 6

[Guppy77]

ok so bubbling the water with air pump helps?

[xconnect.]

It will not do much increasing but shrimps love to live in a highly oxygenated environment so putting the air pump makes the shrimps happy but ph wise not much change

[Guppy77]

hi bro i see, noted, as i saw online they say put some coral chips will help..

[xconnect.]

DON'T PUT CORAL CHIPS as this will increase he gh of the water in the tank which. May cause molting problems for the shrimps causing them to die.the best is to just stop adding more shrimps and just let the tank be hopefully your ph will increase agian.btw what
Soil you using for your crs?

[Guppy77]

hi pal am using ADA 2 soil, can i ad bicarbonate soda? i read it will increase the kh, which is also not good right haha, so better dun do anything

[Matt]

Bro, maybe check the media you using in your filter? Cos pH 5 is unusually low. And to buffer at that level, soil alone may not be the culprit. Also your aged water source? What's the pH level for that? I think before anything be added or altered to your water, best to pinpoint the culprit for causing the low pH? and to avoid false alarm resulting in unnecessary actions, double check your reading with another pH test kit coupled with a well calibrated pH pen?

Just my 2cents worth. Ignore if Sounds like nonsense.

[Guppy77]

Hi All Bro, actually i found the reason, its due to the borneo wild humid which i added, i actually added the whole bottle into my 2 feet tank 2 weeks back and the ph had drop to low levels, yesterday night i removed 90 over percent of them and going to test the water again, but the shrimps are very happy, no casualty :P

[reiner09]

Yes, even if your aerate the water alot it wont change the ph much..as what it does only reduces the co2 in water resulting in lower carbonic acid..your low ph is contributed by other factors so aeration wont help much...
ada soil is already of rather low ph why did you add humic in? Ph 5 is definitely not ideal for crs .. though they might still survive but i think breeding rate and shrimplet survival rate might decrease significantly..
Yes ,you did the right thing. remove the humic and do water change with tapwater, slowly and gradually raise the ph over the weeks

[Guppy77]

thanks Bro, noted, i removed over 90 percent, though some still hidden in the gravel ;-( i added air pump and change water, now the ph about 5.5, will do as mentioned and make it to 6.0, thanks alot!!

[Ezie]

Hmmm i thought humic buffers ph to hover arnd 6.5? Im using it and dont have that problem though and im dosing on top of substrate and it states double dosage for substrate base... Hmm i've read on forums about the different batches of ADA soil pulling ph too low or leech ammonia, cant take my word for it as its only what i read. Is the tank properly cycled and soil stabilised? ADA needs more time to settle in from the reviews i read. Anyway best of luck! oh ya, try testing a couple of days after water change for a more accurate reading and parameter stability.