Hi All,

I have an 80 gallon aquarium with one comet and one golfish in it. Everything has been going fine in the tank for months now, but all of the sudden my comets eye has popped and my pH has dropped to 6. I'm treating the comet with maracyn 2, which works well for the eye, but I am not sure what to do about the pH. I have an extremely hard time keeping the pH at 7, without using pH boosters. Can anyone offer any suggestions on how to permanently get the pH up. I hate using the boosters cause they only last a short amount of time. Also, it gets pretty expensive to increase the pH in an 80 gallon tank.

Thanks,
Amanda

I'm going to try to attach pictures of my comets eye. I have my theory about what has caused it, but if anyone feels like adding their own I'ld be very interested...nevermind, I can't figure out how to post the picture.

You have two goldfish (a comet is a goldfish). They have a nice big tank! What is the pH of your water from the tap? Is it as low as the tank or does it just get low over time in the tank? If the tap water has a higher pH, the solution is to do more frequent and larger water changes, maybe 30% a week. Biological processes (especially in tanks with organics sitting around such as foods and wastes) will lower the pH in many cases. If your tap water is low from the tap, then you can add bases to increase the pH. A simple one to add is baking soda. Dissolve say half a cup in a gallon of water. Add a cup or two of that mix at a time, wait a few hours, and test the pH. Repeat this until you get what you want. Depending on what buffering agents are present in your water, the pH may go up with just a little bit of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) or may require more. Many pH up solutions are NaOH or KOH (sodium or potassium hydroxide). Other additives to consider include calcium carbonate which is basically chalk and also increases the hardness of the water. You can add marine rubble (the shells of clams, etc.), oyster shells, cuttlebone, etc. to release calcium carbonate slowly but it may not be enough.