Hi all, I searched on the forums but couldn't find an answer for my situation (may have not looked up the right keywords it's probably on here somewhere...), so here goes:
I have 2 small tanks (sub 5 gallons) that I use RO water on and remineralise with salty shrimp GH+. I had a rough patch and didn't do tank maintenance for almost 3 months, including monitoring pH, gH, and kH. I tested just now and the pH is super low at 6.0 (read at lowest value of API test kit, it could be lower for all I know) for both tanks. I am running carbon dioxide in one tank but not the other so its not solely a CO2 issue. Additionally both tanks have buffering substrates, the CO2 tank has aquasoil and the non-CO2 tank has fluval shrimp stratum.
Basically I am wondering how would I go about raising the pH to somewhere around 6.5? I haven't tested my tap water but it definitely has gH and kH > 0. Since the substrate is buffered and not exhausted Any time I add tap water instead of RO the pH stays really low still. I've been told if I were to raise kH it wouldn't have an effect until my substrate is exhausted as well. Any ideas how I can raise the pH?
I have 2 small tanks (sub 5 gallons) that I use RO water on and remineralise with salty shrimp GH+. I had a rough patch and didn't do tank maintenance for almost 3 months, including monitoring pH, gH, and kH. I tested just now and the pH is super low at 6.0 (read at lowest value of API test kit, it could be lower for all I know) for both tanks. I am running carbon dioxide in one tank but not the other so its not solely a CO2 issue. Additionally both tanks have buffering substrates, the CO2 tank has aquasoil and the non-CO2 tank has fluval shrimp stratum.
Basically I am wondering how would I go about raising the pH to somewhere around 6.5? I haven't tested my tap water but it definitely has gH and kH > 0. Since the substrate is buffered and not exhausted Any time I add tap water instead of RO the pH stays really low still. I've been told if I were to raise kH it wouldn't have an effect until my substrate is exhausted as well. Any ideas how I can raise the pH?