Reducing Ph With Co2

[angelmouse]

i need to make my ph lower for fish breeding and use r/o tap mix water . the ph goes low in my main tank because i use co2 but in my breeding tanks without the co2 i can't get it low enough, i tryed putting my diy co2 into the container that i store my water in and the ph went down nicely. But i was wondering if its ok to do this, will it make my water unstable and will it just bounce back up when i use it for the tank.
Thanks Angel

 

[roseykat5]

thats funny that u say that ph is low with co2 in my 25 gal its high for me whats sup with that ... i would love to know too

 

[angelmouse]

rosycat do you have alot of airation as that stops it getting too low

 

[roseykat5]

none what so ever all is in there is the gravel , fishy , plants and filter that hang in the back and co2 hagan thingy

 

[angelmouse]

i use r/o water that has low kh and gh, if your tap water is v.hard the ph won't go down but i am suprised its going up, do you have a substrate or rocks that might be causing it
Angel

 

[ArauraDiscus]

I would reccomend some Sodium Biophosphate to slowly lower the Ph, and then some discus buffer which also lowers the Ph, but not very quickly, and it buffers the water to keep it at that Ph.

I used Discus buffer on my tank and got the Ph to 6.2. I then realized that the higher the Ph, the faster the tank cycles so I tried to bring it up. Nah ah. Not gonna happen. I have done two 50% water changes and added some Baking soda, the Ph is now 6.5. This stuff is good. It's discus buffer by Seachem.

 

[angelmouse]

I would reccomend some Sodium Biophosphate to slowly lower the Ph, and then some discus buffer which also lowers the Ph, but not very quickly, and it buffers the water to keep it at that Ph.

I used Discus buffer on my tank and got the Ph to 6.2. I then realized that the higher the Ph, the faster the tank cycles so I tried to bring it up. Nah ah. Not gonna happen. I have done two 50% water changes and added some Baking soda, the Ph is now 6.5. This stuff is good. It's discus buffer by Seachem.

i have ordered seachems discus buffer after you recommended it, it sounds good
Angel

 

[rdd1952]

i need to make my ph lower for fish breeding and use r/o tap mix water . the ph goes low in my main tank because i use co2 but in my breeding tanks without the co2 i can't get it low enough, i tryed putting my diy co2 into the container that i store my water in and the ph went down nicely. But i was wondering if its ok to do this, will it make my water unstable and will it just bounce back up when i use it for the tank.
Thanks Angel

If you stop using it, the pH will most likely go back up as you do water changes. I don't know that it would do it very quickly or anything that would harm your fish. Lowering the pH slowly and then having it go back up slowly at a later time isn't an issue. Having it constantly going up and down as it does when you use those pH adjusters is where the problems start.

thats funny that u say that ph is low with co2 in my 25 gal its high for me whats sup with that ... i would love to know too

I don't think the Hagen CO2 systems don't produce enough CO2 to really make a big difference. Even at that, if your pH is rising or high even with the CO2, it probably means that you have some type substrate or decorations in the tank that are pushing it up or keping it up. In most cases, pH will not rise in the tank unless something in there is pushing it up.