pH troubles in a cycling tank

My tank has been cycling since a few days after Thanksgiving.

My pH is low, 6.8. Over the past few days I've been putting pinches of
baking in the water to raise the pH, and I've noticed that my Nitrites
are finally dropping. Now they're in the "not quite zero" range.

I have a bare bottom tank with some plants in cups of gravel and a
piece of driftwood for the centerpiece. I'm guessing that the bits of
dead plant are what's causing the low pH. I cleaned everything out as
well I could (there was quite a bit of buildup of plant matter on the
inner part of the filter intake, I discovered).

Baking soda is working fine for now, but are there long term solutions
for my low pH? It's about 7.2 coming out of the tap. Do you think being
more diligent about removing the plants my goldies rip up will help
significantly? I think I may phase in some nice looking fake ones.

I've read about dolomitic limestone, but I'm not sure I understand how
it is added to a tank.

In article <1104620711.801733.178780 DeleteThis @c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
kellbot DeleteThis @gmail.com says...
> My tank has been cycling since a few days after Thanksgiving.
>
> My pH is low, 6.8. Over the past few days I've been putting pinches of
> baking in the water to raise the pH, and I've noticed that my Nitrites
> are finally dropping. Now they're in the "not quite zero" range.
>
> I have a bare bottom tank with some plants in cups of gravel and a
> piece of driftwood for the centerpiece. I'm guessing that the bits of
> dead plant are what's causing the low pH. I cleaned everything out as
> well I could (there was quite a bit of buildup of plant matter on the
> inner part of the filter intake, I discovered).
>
> Baking soda is working fine for now, but are there long term solutions
> for my low pH? It's about 7.2 coming out of the tap. Do you think being
> more diligent about removing the plants my goldies rip up will help
> significantly? I think I may phase in some nice looking fake ones.
>
> I've read about dolomitic limestone, but I'm not sure I understand how
> it is added to a tank.
>
>
Try removing the driftwood and placing it in water away from the tank.

Check the PH of the water you are going to place the driftwood into
before doing so and check it a few days later.

I've had the same problem with driftwood although it might not be the
cause of your problem.

Do a search on google for "driftwood tannin ph", you'll see a few
articles which might help.