Seachem Acid Buffer

[Squidward]

Hi All,

I was at my lfs today and was talking to someone there about my water.
I want to reduce the ph and hardness a bit, but at the moment RO isn't an option.

He suggested a product called Seachem Acid Buffer.
Basically it seems to be a chemical which you add to the tank water at the desired solution which converts the KH of the tank to CO2. And by doing this, the PH will be reduced to.

Has anyone any experience with this product?
Has anyone ever used it?
How good is it?

Thanks
Squidward

 

[Bignose]

If you remove your KH, then the amount of buffering will be lessened, and your water won't hold a steady pH. Also, if it really converted KH to CO2, the pH lowering would be temporary at best, as excess CO2 in the water would gas out in a short amount of time -- 24 hours or less. Lastly, KH can't be converted to pH, in general. KH is a measure of the equivalent amount of carbonate ions in the water. But the key word there is equivalent. Because other ions react at different rates, in order to get a measure of their overall effect of keeping the water at a constant pH, they are all expressed as carbonate equivalents: KH. So, while you may have a certain value of KH, there may in fact be very little carbonate available "to be converted to CO2", because your equivalents may all be calcium, magnesium, potassium, etc.

In general, we tend to recommend against adding chemicals to the water. Again, the pH generally won't be stable.

So, let me ask: what is your goal with trying to make the water more acidic? Is there a specific species of fish you want to keep? Trying to breed? Etc.?

I ask only because unless you are trying to breed, or trying to keep wild-caught or other rare species, the vast majority of fish will adapt very well to a wide variety of water, and live very long happy and healthy lives.

 

[Squidward]

I want to keep wild caught fish.

 

[Monty-2010]

Why don't you try peat filtration it sounds so much simpler than what you are suggesting and you're not actually messing with chemical reactions

 

[Squidward]

Why don't you try peat filtration it sounds so much simpler than what you are suggesting and you're not actually messing with chemical reactions

Does peat filtration work?

I have heard that all it does is stain the water brown. But if your ph and kh are high, it doesn't shift it much.

 

[Bignose]

I want to keep wild caught fish.

specifically? Because even wild-caught fish are very adaptable to water conditions -- they have to be to survive, water conditions in the wild usually aren't as stable as the water we get from our taps.

 

[Squidward]

I want to keep wild caught fish.

specifically? Because even wild-caught fish are very adaptable to water conditions -- they have to be to survive, water conditions in the wild usually aren't as stable as the water we get from our taps.

WC Plecos