Basic Aquaponics - How to Raise Water pH with Limestones

It has been a long time since I last check the Aquaponics water pH value.  I suspect something is not right when most cutting that I planted starts to rot. This only happens if water acidity is high.

So with the pH test kit form API, I tested water and got the result of pH 6.0 on 3rd October 2016 as below video

At 6.0 pH I will need to adjust this, otherwise more plants will suffer. The easiest way to increase pH is to use Limestone, Cockle shells or other shellfish. There are also some places selling carbonates to add, which will give a very fast pH boosting. I am not keen in taking this route.

I use lime stones as video above and make some improvement to the method by using aeration to speed up the process as below.

pH water test after five days of using limestone, it increase to 6.5 pH on 8th Oct 2016

pH water test again after 2 weeks, it went up to 7.0 pH on 14th October 2016

pH water check after 3 weeks, it maintain at 7.0 pH on 22nd October 2016

pH water check after 4 weeks, it maintain at 7.0 pH on 30th October 2016.

The limestone has done it job very well, the pH value maintain at 7.0. That shows once all acidity has been neutralized the lime stones just maintain water at neutral.

I'll check pH again after another two week, to see how it goes.

12 December 2016 - Update

Check pH today and is read 7.0, after more than 3 weeks not testing.



I was worried due to rainy season  water may turn acidic. Looks like the limestones doing it job pretty well.