Quote Originally Posted by keith_r
be very careful messing with the ph.. what is your ph at now?
big changes can stress the fish, which makes the fish more vulnerable to sickness/disease.

ph in the high 7's will be fine, small doses of maxicrop w/ iron will get your plants through it till the ph drops on it's own (unless your media is buffering the ph?)
ph out of the tap is around 8.4 my system finally cycled and now that i have a new tank i wont need to be messing with water levels or deal with lots of loss from random leaks.

i tested the gravel with some vinegar and saw maybe 5 bubbles after 20 minutes. so i guess its fine

i was hoping the system would bring it down itself, but i havent seen any changes in ph since i got the kit a long while back.

i think i might add just a tad of hcl and see what happens, it seems to be a good ph dropper from what ive read so far ive also read reports of the maxicrop +iron dropping ph, but ill have to be patient and see whats going to go on before i go and mess things up.