BonniesPlants.com

I would like to see if anyone has info on how to get the PH up my pond. I have added an entire bottle of PH up and it has barely made an affect according to the strips that I have.

Could it be the strips or is there something else that I can use? We have well water that we fill the pond with.

Maintaing proper(steady) pH requires some study. Koivet has some great(free) articles on the subject. Well water can be challenging depending on location depth and season. Maintaing steady pH is the most important part of ponding. I wish I could explain it in just a few lines but I am limited to the hunt and peck method of typing.

Few questions to ask. What is your pH and why do you think it needs to be raised? When did you measure your pH (morning, afternoon, or night) and is this a new pond or an existing pond?

Koi will quickly adapt to whatever reasonable pH you throw at them. A day-to-night and day-to-day measurements should be made and compared to see whether they vary from one another. As Koigardener indicated the key to maintaining a proper pH level is maintaining its stability. Significant pH fluctuation from morning to evening is not "normal" and not "healthy". A significant fluxuation is generally indicative of sagging carbonate levels, insufficient aeration, or an unhealthy fish load.
In new ponds which do not have a fully cycled biofilter, the pH can become a critical issue. During the 4 to 8 week biofilter cycling process, first ammonia and then nitrites will soar to uncomfortable highs before finally coming to rest at a more comfortable trace level. These compounds are highly toxic to fish and are made even more so by water with a numerically high pH.

You may want to try switching from using the strips to using the liquid pH test kit or better yet purchase a pH meter (Bonnie sells both). Either one tend to be more accurate than the test strips.
Steve

The strips are not reliable! They are greatly effected by humidity!

I have not found many pH test kits to be reliable either, that is why I use a meter.

The kits do not take into consideration the temperature where the meter does.

pH up and down or pH up is a total waste of money because it does not contain buffers. This means it will work for a short time. This and aquarium salt, it a huge money maker for manufactures and a waste of good money.

Good old Arm and Hammer baking soda works just fine and will buffer the water and last a lot longer and is dirt cheap. We buy 12 pound bags at Sam's club for around $5.00

My water is very soft and I have to add 12 pounds to my 15,000 gallon pond every few weeks. Heck what is $5.00 bucks. Not being blunt, but you paid a lot more for a bottle of "that stuff" that only last a short time.

You do need to test the water at least once a week to make sure you are keeping the pH steady because it does tend to be used up. But trust me, it lasts a whole lot longer, is cheaper than pH up or pH down.

Test your pH at dawn and again at dusk and post both readings here.

Bonnie

I have looked at all of the pond supply stores locally and no one carries a meter. I did get the liquid ph kit and according to that I am at 7.0 which is better then the strips were. I will try the baking soda from now on and test weekly. I want to keep it around 7.0 correct?

Bonnie also sell them in her web store

http://bonniesplants.com/Supplies.html

I purchased my pH meter through Bonnie. I've had it for two seasons now and it works great.

Your pH reading of 7.0 is defined as neutral. As the waters acidity increases, the pH drops numerically. Conversely, as the water becomes more basic the pH increases numerically. For most koi ponds, an acceptable pH is one which lies between 6.8 and 8.6. Though I must admit for every article or book I read on water quality a slightly different range is quoted. So I wouldn’t get too hung up on trying to maintain a specific value. Within these limits, the pH of an established koi pond is of little real importance. If the pH is within this range and the other water quality numbers are acceptable, koi and most plants will be happy.

More important is maintaining a constant pH by maintaining a correct KH. When the KH level is correct, the ponds pH remains fairly constant. When the KH drops, the pH crashes toward the acid end of the scale killing plants, fish and biofilter.

Don't forget to take pH and KH readings after it rains. Rain water is highly acidic due to the pressence of carbonic acid.

Steve

I have gotten my pond up and rerunning after adding a water fall this year. It has been running for about two weeks now. I just added water lettus to go with a water lilly, pickeral rush, horse tail grass and a spider lilly. I have noticed the water lettus turning yellow on the tips of the leaves and I am trying to figure out what has caused that. I just bought a Ph test kit and my Ph level is 6.0. My tap water is 7.2. I have not added any ferterlizers to any of the plants. I have no fish at this time. Would adding baking soda to the water bring my Ph level up or have no affect on my water. I have added a UV/pressure filter to help control my green water of the past. Anyway what can I do to bring the Ph up? Or could there be something else causing the leaves to turn yellow?

Thanks,
Bryan

Something is not right, no way it can be 7.2 from the tap and 6.0 in the pond.

I don't recall but if you bought the lettuce from us, the tips were sunburned as we were late getting the shade cloth on the greenhouse this year. Lettuce does not like full all day sun and will actually sun-burn. The plants will eventually adjust to full sun though and new leaves will not have the yellow tips.

My pH here in my pond and all my tanks is 8.4 because I use a lot of baking soda and baking soda has a pH of 8.4 I run my KH in my pond at around 120 but in the tanks of fish I sell it runs from 150 to 200.

Ideal pH is 7.5 but not many that I know have a pH of 7.5

Thanks for the quick reply. No I did not buy the lettuce from you. The sunburn is probably correct I did not know about that. I just found your site while surfing the web last night. When I bought the lettuce it was in a shadded 'tub' at a local 'home improvement' store.

My pond is only shadded late in the afternoon and with the 99+ temps lately everything seems out of whack.

I will double check the Ph. I used both a new 'test tube' kit and an old 'strip' kit and both indicated the same.

Back to the baking soda; is there a formula to how much to add to the water to raise the Ph?

Bryan

Welcome to the forum! It is nice to see new members.

I don't recall the exact formula on how much baking soda to add. Maybe some one else does..

How many gallons of water do you have and I can guesstimate how much to tell you to add.

Since baking soda has a pH of 8.4 you can add a ton of it and the pH will not go over 8.4

Since it was in a shaded container when you exposed it to more sun, it would have sunburned. But as I mentioned previously it will adjust to full sun and the yellow tips will disappear.

Bonnie

Bonnie

I have a small pond that is most likely 90 to 120 gallons maybe 150 at most.

Bryan

One pound of baking soda per 1000 gallons of water increases the KH by 71 ppm ish.(US gallons)

Well, I did something stupid I guess. After I found out about adding baking soda to the pond I, of course, added baking soda to my pond. Now there is no telling what I have gotten into. Luckly, I don't have fish but I am trying to get some but I need the water to be correct first.

I added 1 cup of baking soda to my pond and the Ph is 8.4. The KH, however, is 286.4. I have just completed another water change of about 20%. Before this water change the KH was 322.2. So, I guess, the water perameters are getting better. I guess 1Tbsp baking soda would have done better and been easier to control.

I checked my tap water KH and on the first drop of the kit it turns to yellow. On drop two it is bright yellow. (1 drop= 17.9ppm) On the pond water at 15 drops it started to change from blue to aqua and on drop 16 it was completely yellow.

So my question is, should I keep doing water changes over time to lower the KH and just keep an eye on the Ph or should I start over with all fresh water. My pond is only about 100 gals.

Thanks for helping the newbe.

Bryan

Well your water is well buffered. Buffering is both good and bad. On the good side if we don’t have buffering (kH), the pH will drop over time. Sufficient buffering will keep the pH stable which is what is desired to keep the fish from being stressed. On the bad side, hard water almost always has a large buffering capacity and if the pH is to high for your fish, this large buffering capacity will make it more difficult to lower the pH.

But it sounds like you have soft water sincce your tap water only required a single drop to turn the test solution yellow. The pH of baking soda is 8.4 which according to your post is now the same as your pond water. The pH won't go up from here, but will remain constant until the buffer (baking soda) runs out. Overtime your KH will decrease. KH doesn't affect fish directly, so there is no need to match to a particular KH.

I know people who maintain a high kH (~300ppm) because their ponds are highly stocked.

If you have a low KH, doing water changes will actually increase the KH. In addition adding an air stone will increase the KH since it removes CO2.
Steve