bogwood

[terrorist_124]

my new tank will focus on apistos and i read that they prefer acidic (lower pH) water.
my tap water pH is 7.6 .
will adding bogwood to the tank help increase acidity.

thanx in advance

edit: how much is needed?

 

[SPLiSH]

Yep it will lower the pH, to approximately 7.4.

 

[ncjharris]

mind if I ask how you can be so presice?

I had no idea that it was that accurate?

 

[rdd1952]

There's no way of knowing how much it will lower the pH. The higher the KH of your water, the less it will be effected by driftwood. If you have a low KH (soft water), the pH could drop a full point. If your KH is high (hard water), the pH may not be effected much at all. I would definitely suggest testing your KH & GH to see how hard the water is. It seems that generally, tap water with high pH generally comes with a high KH/GH and low pH has low KH/GH.

 

[SPLiSH]

mind if I ask how you can be so presice?

Sorry, I don't know for sure. But I read on a help website that someone used bogwood to lower their pH. Here's the paragraph:

By the way, Terri, messing around with chemicals and other additives to lower pH artificially is, in my opinion, a big pain. Adding driftwood to the tank may help lower the pH a little (in most of my tanks, my driftwood takes the pH from 7.6 to 7.4...in tanks with a LOT of driftwood, maybe as low as 7.3 or 7.2). I would honestly use RO water rather than mess with chemicals if you are concerned with lowering your pH (maybe start out with half RO, half tap, or even two thirds RO, one third tap...if you want to do that...its totally up to you). As I said above, the RO water will start your tank out with a lower pH, and you can gradually raise the pH by doing smaller water changes using tap water to replace the water you take out.

And the link... http/badmanstropicalfish.com/mb/mb220.html

It' the ninth post down, ninth paragraph.

This isn't DEFINATELY what will happen terrorist_124, I just thought you might like to know the experiences of others when they used driftwood.

 

[terrorist_124]

thanx everyone

 

[SPLiSH]

thanx everyone

You're very welcome.Good luck with the apistos!

 

[Hayley]

Just as a side note, as well as reducing the pH woods can release tannins into the water causing a brownish tinge. There is no particular problem with this in itself, but isn't all that attractive, i have kept apisto's and other soft water cichlids in tannin stained water. It is also important to make sure that you fully 'cure' the wood before putting it in your tank by soaking it in other water, this can also help reduce the effects of excessive tannin staining.

 

[Ben]

the tannins is also known as black water, which is the water apistos/various tetras and other fish in the amazon river live in

DD