how much baking soda to raise ph in fish tank?

Question

I have a malawi cichlid tank. THe ph is only 7.2+ Want to raise the ph.Have added coral today. Want to know how much baking soda to add /10 gallons (is a 75 gal tank) to raise the ph to 7.6. I have new fish to put in. The pet store water is at 7.8 Used to have a cichlid tank, but it has been a while. The tank is well cycled since it has been running for a long time, empty.. has been running this time for a couple of months. I already add cichlid salt.

Answer 1

Don't add any,it will change the pH too quickly and shock the fish. Get some coral gravel,it will slowly raise the pH and the fish will acclimate. Dumping stuff in a tank to change the pH doesn't work too well. And it would be better to just stabilize the pH at whatever pH you can easily provide. Hope this helps. Use the "drip method" to acclimate the fish and they should be just fine. PeeTee

Answer 2

In agreement with other posters, I do not add baking soda to the fish tank. I use coral pellets and sea shells which have been soaked to get out the salt residues. I change the fish tank water each week with filtered water only changing half at a time. The purpose in changing half at a time is to maintain the bio flora while reducing the organics. If you want to be more specific, then test the pH of the water going into the tank first using litmus paper.

Answer 3

Just an FYI, for Coral, you want a ph between 8.0 to 8.4. I keep mine right at 8.2, and the Coral love it. You mentioned a PH of 7.2 and raising to 7.6. That is still TOO LOW for coral. You want to be at 8.2 for happy, healthy, and beautiful coral. But, you want to raise the PH slowly, not overnight. For a 75 gallon tank, I recommend about 5 teaspoons every other day until you get the PH to 8.2 (Get a test kit, or take the water sample to a fish supply and they will test it for free. But, only measure after 24 hours of adding the baking soda). This raises it slowly so that your coral and fish will acclimate. If you do too much too soon, you run the risk of killing coral or fish, or making them sick and unhappy at the least.

Temperature 75-80
Specific Gravity 1.020- 1.024 (1.025 or 1.026 is ideal for coral)
PH 8.0 - 8.4
Ammonia 0
Nitrates 0
Nitrate 20ppm or less
Hardness 8-12 dhk (10 is ideal for Coral.

Answer 4

I wouldn't add anything for a few days as coral will raise the ph by a lot in the next week