Lowering Ph

[woodyboy18]

I wanna lower my PH in my tank, its currently 7.0! And I would like around about 6.5 for some dwarf cichlids.

I have 4 pieces of 5-7 inches of bogwood but nothings bringing it down.

Was thinking of using a chemical but I wanna hear of any other solutions first..

 

[PiranhaGirl]

I would like to know the pros and cons of using a chemicals? I'm having the same kind of issues. 

 

[Essjay]

The first thing to ask is do you know the KH of your water? KH buffers the water against pH changes and if yours is high you will find it difficult to change the pH.

As a general rule (and I am aware there will be exceptions) fish that like a low pH also like soft water. If yours is hard lowering just the pH won't suit the fish, you'll need to lower the hardness as well. The easiest way to do that is to mix your tapwater with RO water to get the hardness the fish need.

 

[woodyboy18]

So if I got RO water and mixed with tap it'll lower the hardness and the overall PH of my water?

 

[fluttermoth]

Yes, it will.

You just have to play around a bit (in some buckets, not in your tank!) to find the right proportion of RO to tap to give you the hardness and pH you want.

 

[woodyboy18]

That's cool. Should it be a split 50\50? Or have you experienced this and found you need more of one than the other?

 

[fluttermoth]

Try 50/50 to start with and see what the pH is like.
 
I've never done it myself, no; I have really soft water out of the tap