South American Cichlid Buffer 4.5+ vs. Acid Buffer

[Moi_Eater]

Both products are manufactured by Seachem and were purchased from PetSolutions.com

Two buckets, each containing approximately 3 gallons of aged tapwater.

Bucket 1: pH of 8.3 and TDS of 72ppm

Bucket 2: pH of 8.3 and TDS of 74ppm

Treated bucket 1 with 20mL of South American Cichlid Buffer 4.5+ (10gal dose)

Treated bucket 2 with 1/8 tspn of Acid Buffer (10gal dose)

After a few minutes of aeration:

Bucket 1: pH of 6.8 and TDS of 112ppm

Bucket 2: pH of 6.6 and TDS of 105ppm

After few hours of aeration:

Bucket 1: pH of 7.5 and TDS of 114ppm

Bucket 2: pH of 8.1 and TDS of 107ppm

Repeated treatment with same dosages (gave each bucket a second dose):

Bucket 1: pH of 6.9 and TDS of 154ppm

Bucket 2: pH of 5.9 and TDS of 142ppm

After a few minutes of aeration:

Bucket 1: pH of 6.9 and TDS of 154ppm

Bucket 2: pH of 6.3 and TDS of 142ppm

After a few hours of aeration:

Bucket 1: pH of 7.0 and TDS of 156ppm

Bucket 2: pH of 7.5 and TDS of 144ppm

 

[tjudy]

Great post. Thanks Sam...

The test illustrates to me that no matter what product you use, the TDS will go up and stay up. I like to use RO/DI water to reduce TDS and KH to as low as possible. When the KH is down, the pH will go down naturally with fish, plants, food, nitrogen cycle, etc...

Do you know the KH of your tap water? I suspect that it is high, since the pH went back up so quickly. I will use Acid Buffer ocassionally to force RO pH down (at the cost of adding TDS), but my pH does not go back up. KH is very low to zero in my RO/DI water.

 

[Zapisto]

very nice post. and very helpful.

this confirm my opinion on chemical product, i used them only at last solution.

i love have my TDS low as possible.

thanks

 

[Moi_Eater]

Do you know the KH of your tap water? I suspect that it is high, since the pH went back up so quickly.

According to my Aquarium Pharmaceuticals test kit, the kH of my tap water is about 5-6.

The pH might be going back up quickly because of CO2 being released from the water. I am not totally sure about the South American Cichlid Buffer 4.5+, but the Acid Buffer states that it converts Alkalinity into CO2.

Does anyone have any other info on what happens when using these buffers?

 

[tjudy]

A KH of 5/6 will definitely be buffering the pH back up. I do not know how quickly the the acid buffer will convert KH to CO2, but I cannot imagine that it would be very quickly. Carbonates are very stable compounds.