Tropical Fish Forums

[CCS]

Is there a way I can take the pH changing stuff out of aquarium substrate?

[Jose]

soaking it in fairly strong Hydrochloric acid will slowly remove all of the alkalide substances. Works very slowly if the grains are big.
You can get HCl from a large hardware usually.

[sirreal63]

What is this substrate? If it is a calcium based one and you add acid to it you will not have much substrate left. If you are having high dkh issues, it may not be the substrate.
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Out on the road today...I saw a DeadHead sticker on a Cadillac...
Jack
110 Gallon DSA Pentagon

[CCS]

It's a sand with 1mm to 2mm granules. It will change the water pH to around 7.0. My water is around the 6.2 area my perfect pH would be 6.5. So I really don't need the pH changing stuff in my sand.

Wait a minute, ottos like it at 7.0. Maybe I shouldn't take the stuff out.

I don't know if it's calcium based, so here's a link: http://www.carib-sea.com/pages/products/fresh/freshsub.html

It's the Peace River one.

[Jose]

nearly all sand has calcium and magnesium and has very small grains so if you use acid on it you will probably lose half of it, I used Hydrochloric acid on my aquarium gravel to remove the buffer but regretted it when I added CO2 injection and the pH plumetted to 5.9 so I added more gravel.
Ottos and most other fish will live happily at a pH of 7 just as long as it doesn`t drammaticly change e.g. when my tank went from 6.8 to 5.9 it became 10 times more acidic.

[sirreal63]

I wouldn't worry about it. Freshwater fish adapt very well to their surroundings, and as was said it will be OK as long as there are no rapid changes.
_________________
Out on the road today...I saw a DeadHead sticker on a Cadillac...
Jack
110 Gallon DSA Pentagon

[Jose]

If you want a non buffering substrate go for some crushed granite, very realistic and attractive but can be expensive if brought as an aquarium product, I brought mine from a landscape suplies store for 15.99 per ton