seachem acid buffer??

[kretz11]

I posted a while back about dosing with acid buffer and my fish seemed to be burned and eventually died. I assummed it was because I poured the buffer directly into the tank instead of mixing it in with a water change. I decided to try again and added it at half the recommended dose with a water change. Well, I have the combo meter now so I tested it about an hour later and the pH was at 3.1!....and that was just half a dose this time. I think it's an old bottle, but does this stuff grow in concentration over time??

 

[Randall]

Acid Buffers

Dear Kevin,

3.1 pH at half strengh, eh? No wonder your fish disolved at full strength!

Your water may have minimal buffering capacity (alkalinity). That would explain why a half-dose of acid buffer has such a dramatic effect. Have you considered dosing at one-eighth of the recommended amount? Better yet, forget the whole thing and get yourself an R/O unit.

As far as I know, acid buffer does not escalate in strength over time.

Good luck!

Randall Kohn

 

[kretz11]

I have an R/O unit but I was lowering my pH to induce my panduro to spawn. It was at 90ppm but the pH was still near 7 and I was getting nothing out of them. I brought the pH up from 3.1 to 5.0 over the last couple days. Last night they started their mating ritual and the female has since disappeared into a cave

 

[mak]

Acid "buffer"? A buffer is a mixture of a weak acid and base, designed to hold the pH within a certain narrow range.

I teach chemistry & use buffers all the time. If the pH was 3.1, SeaChem Acid "Buffer" isn't.

mak

 

[tjudy]

Mak, As frustrating as it may seem to us science geeks (I also teach), there are many products that have names that do not describe them. Acid Buffer is not, technicallaay a buffer. It is actually intended to be paired with Alkaline Buffer (another product). If th etwo products are used together in the correct dosages, a specific pH (supposedly) can be reached/maintained.

Kretz, I concur with the thought that your water probably has very little carbonate hardness, and that is why the acid buffer dropped the pH so low.

What does the Acid Buffer do to your EC/TDS reading? If I place it directly in pure RO, a full does will drop the pH to below 4, and raise the EC over 800!!!!!! Interestingly, however, when I add 400 mL of my tap water to 3 gallons of the RO with Acid Buffer, the pH comes up to 6.0 and teh EC drops to about 100. The tap water is affecting the Acid Buffer. My tap has an EC reading of about 1100, and carbonate hardness of 8 degrees hardness (80 ppm CaCO3).

 

[kretz11]

i just mixed some pure R/O with HALF a dose of acid buffer and got almost identical results that you got at full strength. I'm wondering if the recommended dosage on my bottle is a misprint. It just doesn't add up....mine says it's 250 grams and treats 1600 gallons and everyone elses says 300 grams treats 3000 gallons and mine recommends 4 times the dose!...1 tsp for every 20 gallons opposed to a 1/4 tsp for every 20. Maybe my maths way off but that seems to be a pretty big difference.

 

[tjudy]

Hi Kevin,
I think that we di the 'read the label thing' before didn't we? I remember now that our labels are quite different.

 

[kretz11]

yeah, we did. my point was just that if each dose was supposed to alter the water the same, my bottle would run out long before it treated 1,600 gallons.

 

[tjudy]

You could go post that question on the Seachen website...