Newbie Planted Aquarium - pH advice

[ljpramod]

Hello,

I am setting up a new planted aquarium (mostly anubias & Java fern). I just completed hardscape and started water cycle without adding any plants or fishes. Planning to do 3weeks dark cycle before I add them. I used seiryu stone and drift wood with JBL river sand for hardscape. Around the hardscape bellow the sand I added some Tropica plant growth substrate, to experiment with some easy root plants later.

Used RO water for the tank with TDS around 40 and pH value 6.5 before adding to aquarium. After 2days of cycling I tested and the pH seems to have gone up to almost 8.3 and TDS 160. I worried about this pH value, is this abnormal ?

Later read about it and found that seiryu stone increases the pH. Will it be the reason?

Is 8.3 pH ok for a planted tank, with mostly anubias and java? And for fishes like tetra's, corydoras and angle fishes?

Should/can I do anything to reduce the pH in this setup?

P.S. I am newbie to planted aquarium and all the above setup is based on some basic research i have done. Any advice or mention of anything I am doing wrong will be most appreciated .

Thanks.

 

[hypnogogia]

The seiryu stone will raise your pH. 8.3 is a little high for fish, you should aim to keep it between 7 and 7.5. Most folk here will achieve that because they inject CO2. Do you plan on using CO2? I’m not sure how else you’d control it.

 

[ljpramod]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I am planning to add CO2. Any specifics on how much CO2 needs to be added to control ph? I was thinking initially i won't require much as i am just planning anubias and java ferns.