Good alternative for crushed corals?

[Squid]

Whats a good alternative for crushed corals? One of my tanks keep on having ph crashes, ph now too acidic again, good
Thing i added a red
Mammon he seems
To be an indicator
For water
Problem, our tapwater is 7.5 , tank is 150 gal with eheim 2250 canister filled with bio home and mr aqua cr, also has a of hydra 50 , this tanks ph drops quite fast, i removed crushed corals as i noticed my xback develops problem with cc, problem is i just cleaned the canister , noticed my mammon lying down so intested and ph is now red again, as if now i added baking soda, anything i can use besides crushed corals?

[canopy]

alternative you can use baking soda

[satan_gal]

how much u put?

I think best u find out WHY the PH drops so fast first?

Dunno abt others, but usually my tanks (From last time till current) PH has always been quite stable at 7(+/- 1). That is from using OHF, Canister, Sump and with CC as my main media.

[DragonFireSG]

Oyster shell is a viable alternative to coral chips for buffering. They dissolve more rapidly than coral chips and are a better calcium carbonate source. You need to make sure a decent amount of water flows through the oyster shell.

Singapore tap water is 0 KH. KH is what keeps the PH from fluctuating rapidly.

Without KH, a small quantity of acid can have a large impact on PH.

You can increase KH by dosing with Sodium Bicarbonate. You should dose slowly over several days until KH increases to 4 drops hardness (API test solution). At that point, dose to maintain 4 drops.

They key is to use a test kit. You can't possibly know how much to dose otherwise. I test my KH every 2 days. A test kit goes a long way.

[Squid]

thanks, yup our water here also quite soft.
I've added baking soda to temporarily buffer, I have a test kit too but have not used it for along time will try to test again.

for oyster shell, will it be ok to use cooked oyster shell?
or should it be from raw oysters?

[DragonFireSG]

Raw or cooked not matter. Some prefer cooked to kill of bacteria, and clean the shells up.

If you need to put more into the sump or filter, you can coarsely smash up the shells with a mallet and use a finer mesh bag.

Test kits do expire btw. Better check it out before relying on results.

Do note that using baking soda will cause PH to rise to about 8.3, and potentially more if the GH of the water is too low.

It can be damn confusing to see the relationship between GH, KH and PH

Calcium/Magnesium ions make up the majority of GH numbers, whilst Carbonate ions make up the KH.

[Gordy]

Rather than cc. check your flowrate rushing through your cc.

a high flowrate rushing thru cc can raise and stablised your ph with lesser quantity.

[Tustar]

1. Your cc used is too little or already lost it buffering effect.

2. Perhaps it is time to wash your filteration system.