Lowering Ph

[JSmails]

What is the best way to lower PH Levels with fish already in the tank. Im stuck between 8 and 8.5 and had a few neons die and after tests I believe this must be the reason as everything else seems ok. Ive got 2 rams, 5 neons and 2 catfish. Help much appreciated.

 

[clunkster]

firstly have you tested your tapwaters pH ? also what kind of substrate have you got in your tank ? also do you have any rocks in as decorations ?
to lower your pH their are comercialy available products that can do this

 

[Irf]

clunkster's right - you an buy stuff that you add in to the tank in drops. Thing is, it can be very slow cos you can only reduce pH at a certain rate otherwise your fish will suffer. And depending upon your target pH, that could take days and days. Then once that starts, you need to factor in variations due to natural reasons.

I'd suggest a couple of things:

1. Decide upon your target pH (and be sure of your reasons)
2. Check your base water supply pH (tapwater I'd guess)
3. Investigate if you can influence the pH in a less artificial way

There are many ways to come unstuck. For example, I bought a product which claimed on the packaging to lower pH to 7.5. However that was for 100 litres, and the tank I have is 200 litres. Also, it was not recommended for addition to a tank with live plants!!!

My pH has stabilised now at around 7.2 - 7.3, which for London is amazing. I don't use any of the chemical stuff I've bought in the past to keep it low. All I have is lots and lots of plants, and a CO2 supply.

Sorry about the lost fishies, but beware this risk also exists if you start making fast and large pH changes.

Regards,

Irf.

 

[Majjie]

I have a similar situation in my tanks and have been pondering the same question - pH of my tap water is 7.5 - 8.0 and hardness is GH:13 dH and KH:6.7dH

You need to check the hardness of your water as well as the pH as my research seems to indicate that it is the GH hardness that affects soft water loving fish - more than the pH alone.

None of the buffers are good for planted tanks - nor for keeping a constant pH. You can put peat in the filter but you need to keep monitoring the pH to find out when the peat is exhausted - and the pH will fluctuate if you get it wrong. That was too much trouble for me - with more than one tank.

I used to use de-ionised water from a resin column, specially for aquaria, and mix it 50:50 with my tap water. That worked well but it was horrendously expensive. RO water could be used in the same way - but you need to buy the RO unit and, preferably, have it plumbed in and it also produces large quantities of waste water (which I don't want).

My solution - which I admit won't appeal to everyone - was to set up a big bucket size filter of moss peat in the shed and filter my tap water through there before using it to top up my tanks (a method I found on the net). The filtered water comes out at a pH of less than 5 with a KH of 0 and a GH of 7.5dH.

At first I used this straight - for water changes - 20% of this in a tank full of tap water made only a small change in the tank parameters. Now I add a large pinch of bicarbonate of soda to each bucketful to bring the KH up to about 3 or 4dH. The pH in the tanks is now around 7 - but more importantly (I think) the GH has been nearly halved.

The water is slightly yellowy in colour - but not too bad because I poured several kettle fulls of boiling water throught the peat first which removed a lot of the dark brown colour you usually get from peat. About 150 litres later the water is still coming through with about the same pH, GH and KH.

This is probably much more answer that you wanted
And I haven't been using the method for long - so can't vouch for it long term - but I'm really pleased so far .

 

[jayjay]

Ways to keep pH level low - bogwood, CO2 and peat. I wouldn't reccommend those chemicals that lower your pH.