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Ph down buffer.

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Kelvin12

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NSW Australia
Hello all,
I have been reading a lot of previous posts about Ph fluctuations and not chasing it with water thats on the acidic side. However I have been using ' Ph down' a few times and that reduces it but then its crept up again to well above my desired / recommended levels 5.8 , 6.0 quite quickly. I have been using this product, ' Ph down ' where the active constitute is Biphosphate. In addition so far I have been using quite a lot of peat and numerous IAL. Everything seems to stabilize for a bit but soon creeps up to around 6.8, 7.0 mark. I am using remineralized RO and thats keeping the TDS quite well within recommended levels .
I have PRL and CRS shrimp.
 
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G'day Maf, my son has magnolia trees any particular version I need. I think I have 2 maples here at home but not 100% if they are actually maple. I asked a Canadian friend, not fish tank related, but thinking he would know for sure but he didn't recognise the leaf. Now you have spiked my interest I'll take a few photos and post them to see if you can ID them maybe. Hopefully these might work with lowering Ph.

Hello Darrel, reading that post you mentioned camelia leaves. We have them in the garden, wifes pride and joy and now mine if they are good Ph changers. One has a light pink flowers with sort of stripes, wife thinks you would call them varigated the other flowers on the other tree are just bright pink. Would these be suitable. I used their leaves on your suggestion recently but for another reason not Ph related. However are they a Ph buffer, hopefully.

Dirk
 
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Darrel, these are the camelias.
 

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Maf, I am pretty sure these are maples. They are just starting to turn here so hopefully these might be good with the Ph.
 

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Hi all,

Kelvin12 said:
I am pretty sure these are maples.
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That doesn't look like a typical Maple (Acer sp.), they normally have simple leaves with three lobes. Acer negundo might be an option, or possibly Dipteronia sinensis?
Kelvin12 said:
One has a light pink flowers with sort of stripes, wife thinks you would call them varigated the other flowers on the other tree are just bright pink. Would these be suitable. I used their leaves on your suggestion recently but for another reason not Ph related. However are they a Ph buffer, hopefully.
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They are the ones I use. I think they should bring pH down, I'm going to predict somewhere similar to Indian Almond (Terminalia catappa).

cheers Darrel
 
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sparkyweasel said:
They usually have a lot of resin in them, I don't know if you could remove it all before use. Same with other true cones, like fir etc.
I think people generally just avoid resinous material rather than try to treat it.
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Is the wood and cones from pine, fir, and conifer trees actually safe?
 
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Thanks everyone for the help here its appreciated. Looks like camelia and magnolia might be the go.
I'll give the maples a seperate test and see what happens. I did a lot of googling this morning and think it might be an Acer Rufinerve from the snake bark group. The leaf shape and bark and branch shape seem to fit. There were some differences which maybe come from climate, (sub tropic) and the fact this tree is sitting with its roots in salt water. They must be able to filter the salt.

Had no idea there were so manyy of them, incredible.

Dirk
 
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I used to use ‘PH down’, it’s a hydroponic based product yes! Anyway phosphates were through the roof so changed to sulphur based.
Really the simplest solution to keeping my PH rock solid buffeted at 6.6 is to use ADA Amazonian or similar buffering soil.
 
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Kelvin12 said:
Thanks everyone for the help here its appreciated. Looks like camelia and magnolia might be the go.
I'll give the maples a seperate test and see what happens. I did a lot of googling this morning and think it might be an Acer Rufinerve from the snake bark group. The leaf shape and bark and branch shape seem to fit. There were some differences which maybe come from climate, (sub tropic) and the fact this tree is sitting with its roots in salt water. They must be able to filter the salt.
Click to expand...
Acer rufinerve is native to mountainous forests in Japan so highly doubtful it could cope with salt water around the roots. It really does not look like any of the common maples, I don't know any that have compound leaflets like that, but as you say there are so many of them. Have a look where the leaf stalks join the main stem - maples are always in opposite pairs, if they are alternate instead then defo not a maple. Even if not a maple it may be suitable for aquarium use but best to be sure what it is first.

Anyway, you have the camelia and magnolia to start so all is good
 
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Sure am on a learning curve here.....
This is the trunk on the river one. Its not looking it best these days but its got a lot of new growth which it hadn't for a long time. It matches up with the bark description snake bark, grey and white. Also the branches droop when they get a bit of age. I forgot this bit, during early spring it gets these fine yellow mantle flower sort of things very fine and delicate about 10cm in length. The bees flock to them while they last which isn't long at all. I read in the description they bear a nut like fruit but not on this one.
 

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Actually, it could very well be boxelder maple (Acer negundo), as previously mentioned by @dw1305 above. My apologies, I think I missed that on my first look through. No other maples have the compound leaves like that, but A. negundo does and has been introduced to Australia. If you still want to check for opposite leaves see my rubbish drawing that I am going to attach below; you need to look where the compound leaf is attached to the branch or twig, not where the individual leaflet is attached to the leaf stalk.
opposite.png
 
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I'll get a fresh branch tomorrow as this lot are realy wilted and hard to get a decent photograph. There are definately only 5 leaves to a stalk or twig as in your drawing circled on the left. Quite a good drawing actually. My wife remembered a tree lopper quite a few years ago said it might have been a box elder but is vague about it...... normal...

At the moment I have 2 buckets with 5lts of RO water and generous handfuls of MY maple leaves and also camelia leaves soaking. Looking forward to seeing how these go. Taking readings so will see in a couple of days.

Been trying to look up where Slade Dingle is but can't find a location, possibly Ireland??. Well kept secret.

Dirk
 
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Kelvin12 said:
Been trying to look up where Slade Dingle is but can't find a location
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Not a recognised place name, more a private joke, but factually accurate all the same. I live within the valley (dingle) of the Slade Brook in Northamptonshire, England. The joke (not very funny) is that slade and dingle both mean valley... I was originally going to write "Slade Valley" as my location but went with dingle at the last second.

Will be interesting to see what readings you get from the soaked leaves.
 
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Maf, Hope these are what you had in mind. Let me know if they are not. This tree has been chopped around a fair bit so some of the branches seem a bit odd. This one is out the front abd not in salt water.

Some twigs seem to directly opposite as in your drawing while others are staggered.

Dirk
 

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