longterm solutions

[terrorist_124]

hey every1,

i hav a problem,i need to lower my pH but i don't want to use chemicals.

is there an easy way to lower pH.


thanks in advance

 

[WILDER]

Can you say why you wan't to lower it, peat in the filter, that about all i no.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I think bogwood lowers ph or somthing, but most fish can happily live in a ph that isn't nesarsarily to their exact liking- what fish are you trying to lower the ph for and what is your current ph?

 

[terrorist_124]

my current pH is 7.6
i need to lower it for some apistos i'm getting next week

 

[rdd1952]

Why do you want to lower it? What is your current tank and tap pH and what do you want to get it to? Unless you are trying to keep fish that are extremely sensitive to high pH, I wouldn't do anything to try to change it. Once you start adjusting it, you can run into really big problems.

 

[WILDER]

You could climatise them to the ph very slowly over 2 hours, better than messing about with the ph.

 

[terrorist_124]

i already put a couple of pieces of bogwood but it's not helping.

my tap pH is 7.5-7.6

i need to lower it to around 7.


thank all

 

[WILDER]

Only thing is if you lower it to fast the other fish will suffer, i still would climatise them, as messing with ph, it's sometimes is never stable.

 

[WILDER]

Then you have to worry about water changes, as the ph is different.

 

[Bloo]

Unless you plan on breeding (and even then) 7.6 will be absolutely fine.

 

[terrorist_124]

so 7.6 is fine for apistos , bloozoo

 

[rdd1952]

Have you measured the pH of your tap water? Also, what is the KH of your water. If you have a high KH (hard water) you will have a difficult time lowering the pH very much. Also, as already stated, if your tap pH is 7.6 or higher and you get the tap pH to 7.0, water changes could cause some pretty big swings in the pH which are very hard on fish. I would go with the bogwood. Also, if you have live plants, you might want to try CO2 injection. That too can lower pH. I wouldn't do it specifically for that reason though. If you don't have plants to use the CO2, you will have a pH crash for sure.

 

[Bloo]

Absolutely. Don't worry about it too much at this stage. If you want to lower your PH over time, there are ways and means to do so, but as Wilder said, the best way depends on your GH & KH as well. Yes they favour a slightly lower PH than that but it really is OK. Here is a great article on water chemistry and ways to deal with it once you understand it.

On a side note: do you know the PH of the water they are coming from ?

 

[WILDER]

Rd1952, mentioned gh and kh, so credit to him.

 

[Bloo]

Oh oops sorry ! )