This May Be Premature But I'm Pretty Pleased

[KrystaK]

As a few may know, I've been having trouble since I started my 30 gal last June. This is because I live in the country, I'm on a drilled well, so the water is very hard and very basic. I constantly have to vinegar the sides of my aquarium to get the calcium stains out and my pH is 8.2.

Now I haven't found a solution for the hardness yet (other than to get an RO unit) But I recently stumbled across Jungle: Correct pH
It says that 1 puck is good for bringing pH down to 7.0 in a 10 gal aquarium.
I added 1 puck this morning to my 30 gal and it brought the pH down from 8.2 to 7.8. I'm not stupid enough to add more because changing it too quickly would screw up my fish.

My only reservation is how long it says this pH change is supposed to last, according to the package it lasts several weeks, even through 25% Biweekly water changes. I change 25% weekly so it obviously wont last very long, but still.
I'll be testing every few hours (Aside from my work shift this afternoon) To see how long these pucks actually last.
I don't plan on adding anymore until after my water change on Monday, and then I'll test 2-3 times daily to determine exactly how long one puck lasts.
A pH of 7.8 is close enough to perfect for me

I don't like adding chemicals to my tank, but I want my tank to be as fish-friendly as possible, it that includes a puck or two a week I'm all right with that I suppose. Especially because they're 3.50 CAN for an 8 pack

Just out of curiosity has anyone else used these? Also, any other added precautions people think I should take I would be more than happy to hear.

 

[coolie]

Does it say what the active ingredient is?

 

[KrystaK]

It doesn't list it on the box. I had to go to the website and look the MSDS sheet (They actually provided one, which is cool) It lists no known hazardous chemicals - but it also doesn't list any chemical in particular as an active ingredient

And I've been testing the water, it's back up to 8.2 this morning, so it didn't last nearly as long as I was hoping it would. Just another waste of money I suppose

 

[coolie]

Yeah, I've seen some in LFS which are sulphuric acid! I was actually wondering if any use Sodium Bisulphate which is what you use to lower ph in pools,
but I don't know how toxic that is so please don't try it. Having used peat myself, I'm currently switching to my own answer which is seaweed, and who knows,
I may go on to devlop this as a product in itself.

 

[Essjay]

Why do you want to lower your pH? Is it because you want to keep fish that prefer a lower pH?

Most fish that prefer a lower pH also prefer softer water, and you say yours is hard. Hardness is probably more important to fish than pH. Adding that product will do nothing to lower the hardness; in fact it'll raise the tds (total dissolved solids) which is the opposite of what you need to be doing to keep fish that prefer softer more acidic water.

You need to lower both hardness and pH to keep fish that don't like your water. The only realistic way of doing that is to mix your water with RO.