Switching from Neutral Regulator to Acid and Alkaline Buffer

[Alexa]

Ive been using Neutral Regulator with RO Water in a community tank for a while, and I now want to turn my tank into a low-light planted. Reading here it seems I should consider using Alkaline Buffer combined with Acid Buffer to buffer the water to avoid the phosphate in Neutral Regulator--or would that not be much of an issue in a low-light planted tank?

And if I do want to switch buffering products, I am a bit confused as to the dosing. Reading information here and previous discussions it seems pretty cut-and-dried as to how much NR to use to maintain buffering for a month, but the Alkaline/Acid Buffer recommendation is a ratio with the amount up to the user depending on how long they want the buffering to last? So my question is, how much to provide buffering equal to what one would achieve with NR in RO in my water changes?

[Tech Support LK]

Hi Alexa. Welcome to our forum! I have created a new thread for your post as I feel this is a more appropriate way to address your questions.

Neutral Regulator is okay to use in a low tech planted aquarium and whether or not an algae issue will result depends on a number of factors. Truth of the matter is, you will never be able to achieve the stability that you have achieved using the Neutral Regulator if you switch to a carbonate-based buffering system. This is just the nature of these chemicals. The reason why phosphate-based buffers are chosen over carbonate-based ones is because of this fact. They are just better buffers.

As far as making the switch to Acid and Alkaline Buffer, this can be tricky depending on whether you are using RO/DI water or tap water. The dosages on the bottles are based on the products being used in RO/DI water, so if you are using tap water, then you will have to sort of work to figure out ratios based on your water conditions. If you are using RO/DI water, then you can follow the ratios suggested and the products will work to bring your pH to where they indicate they will on the bottle. The first thing to decide is there you want to keep your pH. If 7.0 is your goal , then you will need a 1:2 ratio of Acid:Alkaline Buffer in order to achieve this pH. The next step would be to determine a goal for KH (or alkalinity). Lets say you determine that you want to keep your alkalinity around 3 dKH. You would first calculate out how much Alkaline Buffer to add to your water to achieve that KH (actually, you will shoot a little bit higher than 3 because once you add Acid Buffer, some of the KH will be converted to CO2). For instance, the label instructions say to add 1 tsp of Alkaline Buffer per 10 gallons of water in order to increase KH by 5.6 dKH. Lets say you have 20 gallons of water, then to get to a little higher than 3.0 dKH in 20 gallons, you would add about 1.25 tsp of Alkaline Buffer to the water. This should take the alkalinity to about 3.5 dKH. Then, based on the 1:2 ratio, you would add about 0.6 tsp of Acid Buffer. This will result in a pH around 7 and a dKH of about 3 dKH. If you are using tap water, you will want to determine the pH and KH of it first and adjust your dosing as necessary.

[LabTest57]

After figuring out the ratios I would recommend a dosing pump to dose these buffers and acids every day, because in most low-tech planted aquariums the pH tends to rise. If your trying to keep the pH from rising a lot you could lower surface turbulence and increase O2 saturation via spray bar (decreasing surface agitation also deacreases O2 saturation). In a carbonate-buffer system excess CO2 can accumalate as carbonic acid (dissolved CO2) and temporarily keep the pH lower than usual. Lowering aeration and surface movement can keep the rate of dissolved CO2 from outgassing at a minimum.


In my opinon it's much harder to control a carbonate-buffer system, however, phosphate-buffer systems can be controlled quite easily. The main problem with phosphate-buffers is that it can cause algae blooms if there're aren't any plants, or plants with nutrient deficiencies. I figured out a way to control the type of algae outbreaks and still dose Neutral Regulator. Increasing bacterial (nitrifying, denitrifying,etc.) biomass to control water-soluble nutrients can allow one too starve the existing algae. Most denitrifying bacteria, through this biomass-increase period, can lower nitrates to very low levels and have green, brown, and BBA algae die off instantly. Phosphates can be used in the ATP energy process to rapidly reduce excess nitrates and other nutrients from the water column. Only drawback is you must dose Neutral Regulator every month, before the buffer is exhausted.

Using organic carbon such as sugar at the rate of 1/8 of a teaspoon per 25 gallons of water for up to 3 days and increase dosage by plus 1/2 of intial dosage every other day. Max recommended dosage is one teaspoon per 100 to 250 gallons of water after 1 week of intial applications.

Cloudy water is a sign of a bacterial bloom. Do this at your own risk, because without proper skimming, high-tech mechancal filters and O2 saturation levels you risk losing all your fish, invertebrates, and/or corals.



I have a low-tech planted freshwater aquarium, I dose sugar at a continous modified schedule, and I also dose vitamin C at 5 ppm twice a day (every 8 to 12 hours). For my ~200 gallon aquarium, I've successfully riden my tank of BBA and brown alage with sugar at the rate of teaspoon per day (been dosing for more than a month). I have been using Neural Regulator for more than 2 weeks and there's only Cyanobacteria/algae growing, though this is the usual response of high phosphate concentrations and very low Nitrates (below 5 ppm). Cyano usually appeares when Nitrates plunge below 10 ppm. I like Cyano. because of it's color and non-floating appearance. However, without any other nutrients I can make them dissappear just like BBA in less than a week. =)

[Cardinals]

What is your target pH and tap water KH/pH?

[Tech Support DD]

Neutral Regulator is very stable and easy to use. Figuring out how to use Acid Buffer and Alkaline Buffer may take a little more "tweaking" than when using Neutral Regulator; however, once you figure out how much to use of each buffer, the pH is easy to maintain.