How To Lower Ph

[fiskkeeperpro]

Im hopefully going to be setting up my new aquarium on saturday, its going to be planted. I want to keep cardinal tetras and rams (amazon fish mostly) but their pH is reccommended at 6. I dont have tests yet, but if my pH is too high for them, how do i go about getting it down? Will mopani wood, plants and tetra substrate get it down?

Thanks guys, even if it seems a silly question

Will

 

[Tobigara]

You don't need to lower the ph unless it's ridiculously high, like 9 or something. Most fish at the shop are tank bred and can tolerate a different ph. you might however want to test your tap water's kh and gh. if you have a high kh then your ph will remain stable and that's much more important than the ph value.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i would only look to lower it if the pH is 8 or above, this is fairly unlikley

pH is tricky to adjust, while it can be changed easily, it becomes v unstable the minute you start to mess with it. and a stable pH that's slightly too high/low is much better than a pH that's unstable but occasionally hits 'ideal'

 

[darknirvana217]

You won't need to mess with the Ph for those fish since they are being bred in captivity. you would only need to lower it for Discus or wild caught fish. My 150 gallon Amazonian catfish tank has a Ph of 6.6 and has a lot of tanins, since they are all wild caught. I have been using Seachems Discus Buffer to lower the Ph. Every water change, usually 25%-30% a week, I have to gradually change the Ph using this buffer while adding water. I was afraid of a Ph spike at first, but so far every water chnage my Ph readings have been constant.