Problem Lowering Ph!

[ArauraDiscus]

Hi, I am attempting to lower a cycling discus tank to around 6.2 ph. I have used discus buffers and ph lowers but the ph is lowering so slowly. Right now it is at around 7.0 after adding two 4 oz. containers of ph down and 7 ounces of discus buffer which is designed to lower ph and keep it low.. It was originally 7.6. And the hardness is 50 ppms. So it's very soft, this shouldn't be happening right? Ammonia 0 Nitrite .25 Nitrate 20 Alkalinity 300!!!!! And ph now 7.0 and stable. It is a 40 gallon aquarium with a rena xp3 canister filter. Any clues??

 

[BigC]

There are many ways to obtain a lower pH
CO2 (excellent when coupled to a pH controller)
Peat Fibre
Reverse Osmosis
to name but a few.
Try some peat in a bag in the filter for starters.
Regards
BigC

 

[ArauraDiscus]

Peat bags color the water a tea brown more often than not, and puts too much pressure on the peat bogs, I will find alternatives, but thanks

I was going to get an RO unit, actually that removes all the good minerals in water that fish need and makes the water neutral, I was going to do that to remove the hardness, but 50 ppms is plenty soft.

I do not want to lower my hardness. 50 ppms is very low. I am just wondering how my water seems so buffered when it is only 50 ppms of hardness. I just want to lower the ph at this point. Any ideas in light of that?

 

[angelmouse]

i have the same problem, been trying to lower ph for a discus breeding tank, i use r/o but as my water is very hard this only takes it to 7.2. In my planted tank with co2 and because i have 3kh it drops to 6.2- 6.5 but in the breeding tank without co2 it stays at 7.2. I have tryed peat -not much difference though. luckily my fish seem happy and are breeding and have been recommended that its ok, why do you need it so low ph7 is not too bad and as it is stable that is good..
Angel

 

[ArauraDiscus]

Thats true but I want to get it to the ph of the breeder I am buying from. His discus thrive and reproduce at around 6.2-6.4 ph, so for now, when I introduce them, I want to do it their way, then I'll slowly adapt it to my prefered ph if you know what I mean.

 

[angelmouse]

yep you are best to match it to the breeder, never got on with those ph lowering aditives, found that it would keep going back up again, other than r/o i found my diy co2 the best thing for lowering my ph, plenty of bogwood could help abit as well. Have you any rocks or substrate that might be raising it.
Angel

 

[OceanGoddess]

The pet store has a powder that can either increase PH or decrease PH.
Very cheap.
Look out for some.

 

[ArauraDiscus]

Nope, my tank is bare no gravel, there is a terricotta breeding cone, and two peices of slate though. Could they be it? It was my understanding that slate doesn't leech into the water?

 

[Don Trinko]

I have never been able to lower ph for more than a few days. If the KH of your water is high enough it is my understanding that any ph change you make will be temporary and the swing back to the old ph can be fast and distress the fish. You can get RO water and add addatives to get the desired ph or you can mix RO/TAP/and chemicals to get the desired PH. If the KH is to low PH can change drasticly also.
Most of the people who keep discus aclimate the discus to their water unless they intend to breed them. Don T.

 

[ArauraDiscus]

Yeah my hardness is very low so my water is very soft though, thats why I made a very big attempt to make that obvious

Because the ph shouldnt be temporarily lowering and returning to an alkaline state. I'm wondering what else could cause this?

Btw, my ph is now at 6.6 and holding. After adding about 24 ounces of ph lowering additives. That was way too difficult. I wonder why?

 

[ArauraDiscus]

NEVERMIND! Thanks for everyones help but I found my problem. The Discus buffer solution is advertised as lowering the ph, and keeping it stable. THe buffer solution increased my alkalinity to 300 ppm. Alkalinity has a huge part in keeping fluctuating ph changes down to a minmum. Once I get my ph to my desired level, it will be difficult for it to be raised or lowered without my outside influence which is perfect, just what I needed. Had I known this would happen after adding the discus buffere, I would have added the ph down first, gotten an acceptable ph and then added the buffer to keep it there. Good product, poorly explained on the bottle. Thanks again guys.

 

[rdd1952]

It sounds as if you may have found your problem. The more buffering capacity, the harder it is to move the pH. Personally, I would put several pieces of driftwood in to help lower the pH. Either that or the peat. Both may slightly tint the water but it would actually give the water a more natural color for the discus.

You are also going to need some type storage container to keep water in for the many water chanegs you have to do with discus. Because of the large difference in your tap pH and the tank pH once you get it to 6.2, you can't refill the tanks straight from the tap without boosting he pH way back up.

 

[ArauraDiscus]

Yeah which is gonna be a real pain in the butt. I wonder how I'm gonna do that exactly. Ughhs. Maybe I'll slowly move their ph up a little, and try to keep it around 6.8 or 7.0. SO many difficult choices.