hae the week off and hae been writing in a note book on how to take care of the pond (god forbid something should happen to me daughter wouldnt have a clue) when i thought of something. Has anyone ever had a way to low ph and a stable kh and is it possible , if so what do you do. I know what to do for a low kh but what if its fine.Thanks!
ph and kh question
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sissy
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My dad did that .I have 5 note books of stuff on the pond my dad and I built back in the 60's .I still use a lot of his info and yes I made my own books and with the help of the puter world i have included pics from the beginning in 2004 .I wish I had pics of my dads pond but my mother was not a pic taker .Depends on what you mean by low ph as some people think 7 is low and others think 7 is high .
Meyer Jordan
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Not clear on what the question is.
Meyer Jordan
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Anything is possible. The scenario you mentioned could occur with very soft water, but water with a GH that low (near zero) rarely occurs naturally.
Smaug
God makes perfect. I just dug the hole
My water has a gh of 150 to 175 and and kh of only 3 to 4. PH right out of tap is 7.5 . My pond pH goes as high as 8 never lower then 7.5. I call that rock solid stability for pond as pond fish are really not that pH sensitive. Unless pH isnt lower then 7 it isn't a problem . The same minerals that make up gh are not what makes up kh.
crsublette
coyotes call me Charles
It is possible... but... You would basically need to change your buffer system and that is not easy. Your buffer system is what determines your pH at a particular KH level until the buffer system's "stability point" is reached... As KH goes up, then so does your pH and the pH stops raising once the "stability point" is reached... which depends on many things... Most typical buffer system is the carbon dioxide (or bicarbonate/carbonate) system... Can't remember offhand, but I think, at 6~6.5 pH, your KH is likely around 17ppm (that is 1*dKH)...
Bascially, to change your pond's buffer system, you would use something like 30% concentrated phosphoric acid (typically found in hydroponic stores) to "burn off" your carbon KH and then use dipotassium phosphate (https://www.amazon.com/Potassium-Phosphate-Dibasic-Grade-1000g/dp/B00CF28K2G) to increase your water's pH... Eventually, this will create a phosphate buffer system... but this takes time... and you will likely experience significant algae growth.. I would not recommend this unless you really like algae.
You can also do some other tricks, but this would result in creating an environment that is not suitable for fish.
@marsha ... here is the best option you have..
Get ALOT of crushed oyster shells (or something similar) and primarily use this in your plant containers, a significant amount in your bog, and maybe even spread some in the water stream (if your pond has one) and pond floor...
Eventually... your pond will create a balance of around 7.3~7.5 pH with a little bit of KH...
Sounds like you want a lower pH without risking your fish's health... and this approach with the crushed oyster shells is really the safest approach...