Does anyone know how PH stabilisers like Easy Balance and Proper Ph work?

DataGuru, if I were to use easy balance instead of Baking soda after getting my tank slowly to match the tap params will it help?

I thot nitrates take a spin but I just read someone's nitrate at 40 despite using easy Balance. I am mulling on this since despite my best efforts to match ph, I am again seeing frayed fins.
I really need a long term solution. U know how coral bombed!

Your readings were: Nitrites zero, ammonia zero, Kh3 , Gh >10 and Ph between 6.8-7.2. The tap water params are also the same except nitrates here are zero.

baking soda should work fine. I think part of the problem is trying to keep water happy with 3 goldies in the 5 gallon tank. Not much leeway there. It should be easier when you get the larger tank cycled. How much does it hold?

I've never used any other buffers cept for oyster shell. I don't know much about phosphate buffers.

I couldn't tell what's in the easy balance from their info on the web. A lot of it sounds like snake oil if you ask me.

Here's a FAQ on proper pH.
http://www.aquariumpharm.com/articles/propPH.asp
Is says: PROPER pH 6.5, 7.0, and 7.5 are phosphate buffers
It also says that phosphate buffers make plants. unhappy
This FAQ on te krib says phosphate buffers can cause algae blooms.
http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-chem.html
Here's an intersting page that's worth a read on pH and buffering.
http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/aquai...alawi_temp.html
Look under the temperature table. Apparently some phospates increase pH and some decrease it.

Maybe someone else has used phosphate buffers and can tell you if they'll work better in your situation.

Dataguru, I'm going bonkers.

I'm seeing frayed fins again. I posted in the disease section also the problem. Is there any way now that I can resort to using easy balance. I dont think I'm cut out for baking soda. Too much room for error. I think I will try the crushed sea shell in my fishless tank. Not much at risk there. Can adjust and make it my scapegoat. But right now my fish are having to deal with two things simultaneously. suspended coral dust and a Ph that's bouncing all over the place.

Can I switch to Easy Balance. Give a break to the poor li'l guys.

My problem is that the only way I can get the dust out is water change and for that I need to match Kh and PH and that is where all the problems lies. So catch-22. How do u suggest i go about it.

When I tried to match the tank ph of 8 in the fresh water, I dont know what Kh I reached but I just stopped adding drops after i reached Kh reading of 17 in my Tetra kit. I threw the water, needless to say. I wonder what I shld do tomorrow. They need the water change.

Plz. advise. Thnx again.

As far as the Easy Balance to reduce nitrates, I've have not found that to be true. For me, it does a good job at immediately lowering the ph and stabilizing it. But that is it.

so can u plz suggest how do i go about it? shld i add Easy Balance to the fresh water or add it to the whole tank?

if it immdiately lowers ph wont it stress the fish?

How are they doing?
What did you end up doing?

Thnx dataguru for asking. My tank ran into biogenic decalsification. :angry: Ph shot thru the roof at 9.0. To make matters worse I had anachris that heavily depletes the carbonates to get CO2. The first couple of days I just did daily partial water changes to get the ph down but the bKH at 7.0 brought the tap ph of 7.5 straight back to 9.0. I decided to go drastic and took out all the plants that made matters worse, added an extra airstone to ensure sufficient oxygen, and did 70% water changes with no extra buffer added to the tap water. I managed to get the ph to 8.0 now.

Actually there were many things that took their toll. Firstly whenever I added the fresh water, there was heavy difference in co3 level coz I buffered with baking soda. There was instant release of co2 then to get balance and so it effected their gills. Then there was the coral dust anyway. At ph 8.5 and no CO2, the plants kept using the carbonates releasing more OH ions resulting in skyrocketing ph. It was a compounded disaster.

My new tank is still cycling . But now that I have ph at 8.0 I will try and lower it but to do that I need to exhaust all acids first to note a change. That is tough since my tap is buffered at 4.5. So I guess I will put them in the new tank with a PH change of .5 but release them in my new tank like we do with new fish. except this time i will keep adding the new tank water into their bags for a few hours before I release them.

Coral did not work for me since even if I brought the fresh water KH to 7 the ph remained at 7.5. And tank ph was 8.5 then. I even bought a CO2 tank but I was not sure how much to release. So left it alone.

So what do u think? Did I do right or would u recommend another alternative.

Man I went crazy then with no kokos available. I browsed like nuts , saw peat as option, then CO2. But this seems to have put a cap on the deteriorating issue.....till they get a bigger home....