How Do We Lower Our Ph Levels?

[pinkdolphin_113]

my tap water has the pH level of 8(ish) and most of my fish prefer the water to be slightly acidic (somewhere about 6.5) and i was wondering how i would go about lowering it.

i know it technically doesn't matter these days because of fish being tank bred in water that doesn't exactly meet their needs etc but i would rather try get the water abit better for them.

and how would somebody go about raising it? just incase somebody on here would like the information.

thanks

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

This would most likely be better suited in the general topic forum (and it has been asked many times before, but I know it's hard to search for "pH" on here due to the character number restriction)

pH can be lowered by use of driftwood (leeches tannins), peat, and CO2 injection. In the case of extremely hard water filtration to remove excess buffer minerals may be necessary. An RO/DI unit can be used for this, but since it removes all the minerals from the water remineralization must be done by either adding a commerical product or "cutting" the filtered water with a specific ratio of tap water.

Raising pH can be done by adding a source of calcium carbonate such as limestone, crushed coral, etc.

Keep in mind that if you decide to alter your water chemistry you will have to commit to premixing your water before every waterchange, replacing filters/resins (expensive), and securing an alternate source of soft water if your unit fails. In my opinion (obviously not very scientific but just general advice) it's not worth it unless you are considering breeding softwater fish, or have some species that would suffer adverse affects in hard water.

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

yea, i asked the guy at my lfs and he said the same thing about there being no need unless i was to breed a certain type of fish.
i notice african cichlids prefer harder water too. i think i might look more into that kinda thing.

i did post on the general topic thingy but no one answered or anything.

also, if i were to filter my water through peat, would i put it in my filter? and if so, how much?

thanks

 

[-SPB-]

One thing to be carefull of when playing around with the PH, if raised or lowered to much in one go it can harm your fish, i for myself did this ages ago when i was pretty new and killed a couple of fish, and another person who posted here a while ago wiped out half of her tank, we both used chemicals to adjust our ph, so this may have been the cause. Using natural materials such as peat, coral, CO2, driftwood would be a lot less harmfull as these things are found in the wild.

 

[rdd1952]

i notice african cichlids prefer harder water too. i think i might look more into that kinda thing.

There are substrates made specifically for African cichlid tanks. They hae the buffering added so that it raises the pH and keeps it stable. But as already mentioned, raising or lowering it as a general rule isn't necessary.

If you do decide to do so, stay away from the adjusting chemicals such as pH Up or pH Down. They just put your pH in a constant swing. Adding peat to your filter or putting driftwood/bogwood in the tank will lower the pH some depending on your buffering capacity. Adding crushed coral to the filter or some tufa rock to the tank will raise the pH.

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

i have a few peices of mopani wood and bogwood in the tank as it is.
i was also told that the pH level would start to drop abit as the tank gets older (?)

 

[rdd1952]

i was also told that the pH level would start to drop abit as the tank gets older (?)

That depends on your maintenance schedule. If regular water changes aren't done the water can begin to lose it's buffering capacity. The buffers are what keeps the pH steady. If they begin to deplete from the tank, the pH will start to drop. As long as you do regualr water changes and replenish the buffers the pH should remain stable.

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

and if i was to filter my water through peat, would i put it in my filter?

 

[rdd1952]

Yes. Just put it in one of the chambers, depending on the type filter you have. In the US that's a little more difficult as so many people use HOB filters as opposed to the UK where externals seem to be the filter of choice (they are for me too).

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

ahh yes! there are 2 chambers in my filter. from the bottom, should i put peat - sponge or sponge then peat?

i'm thinking about adding some activated carbon too. would it be safe to have half peat and half carbon?

 

[rdd1952]

I'm not certain about the order of the sponge/peat. I will say that the carbon is pretty much a waste. Very few members use it. I don't. It can become saturated in as little as a day. Unless you have some type chemicals in the tank such as medications that need to be removed, it really doesn't serve much purpose.

 

[Musho3210]

the lowering of pH is when acid or something bonds with something alkaline thus making it neutral, end of the story for those couples. Acid is constantly being produced through lots of things, more specifically the nitrogen cycle. But buffers arent replenished as fast or as much as acid is being produced. So little by little there becomes more acid then alkalinity, thus lowering the pH. Once there arent any more buffers the pH crashes, in other words drops fast to pretty low levels. Doing water changes will replenish buffers (alkalkine) which the acid bonds to and becomes nuetral. If you have good maintainence you will always have enough buffering capacity to prevent the ph dropping or crashing. I think theres a thread here somewhere that talks about this.....