The Importance Of Buffering pH In Your Pond

It’s a simple fact that the pH of pond water will fluctuate throughout the day and night, and it is not an absolutely stable thing. pH is affected by a lot of things in the pond and the environment.

As we’ve talked in the past, having a reasonably neutral pH is a good thing, but even more importantly it’s critical to have adequate buffers in place to ensure that the natural pH swings don’t become too wide or extreme.

Most wildlife and fish can handle pH ranges that are pretty wide. Whether it is low or high isn’t as much of an issue compared to how fast and how wide the changes might be. These drastic and fast moves are what tend to shock fish and add to their stress.

In the simplest terms, buffers “soak up” excessive acids and bases that are created in the pond and in adequate amounts they simply don’t allow the pH to get too far out of hand.

In the video below I’ll talk more about buffers and how to add to the buffering capacity in your pond.

Your comments and questions are always appreciated and you can enter those below the video.

[youtube width=”425″ height=”355″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY0wO5iu9mY&feature=youtube_gdata[/youtube]

So how much baking soda do I use to buffer the pH?

As a follow up to the video, a few questions came in regarding proper dosage for baking soda…that’s no included below.

This will vary from pond to pond but here’s a good way to get going. You’ll want to check your alkalinity and see where that reads. If it’s low, add somewhere between 1/4 to 1 cup of baking soda to a bucket of pond water. Make a slurry out of this and pour back into the pond. You’ll want to retest the alkalinity a short while after doing this and see where it reads.

You should see the reading come up, and the pH may or may not rise as well. Add a bit more over the coming days in the same way if you should need to, to reach an acceptable level. Check the pH and alkalinity about once a week and see if it holds. If it should need adjustments just repeat the process. If you should happen to overdo the process a bit, just add or do a small water change…maybe 10% to see if this correct the situation.

High readings in terms of alkalinity or pH will usually require you to add a light acid to the water. The best tool to use is pond pH adjusters that can be found commercially.