Why Wont My Ph Change?

[kribensis12]

Hey, well my water here is extremely hard. My pH is at around 8.4. People around here compare our water to concrete. Well, I do my best to pick fish that are more used to my pH. I have labs, but I also have Angelfish and albino bristlenoses. I know the pleco's like a lower pH( i know they aren't having many problems with this pH, as I had a common pair breed succsessfully). But, the pH has been a problem for my angels( and other fish I have attempted to breed). They will lay eggs, but the hardness is so high, that the sperm can not penetrate the eggs. Or, once the eggs are fertilized, they go bad. I have used peat. No avail. I have used liquid hardness reducers and pH adjusters, no avail. I have used r/o ( surprisngly!) no avail. I have used driftwood, no avail. My pH just wont budge. The adjusters will change it, and then it bounces right back up( stupid hardness! ). Any idea's? I feel like an incompetent fish keeper when I can't get a fish to breed. This is annoying the crap out of me.

 

[Bignose]

What is your KH? KH is a measure of how resistant to change your pH will be.

 

[kribensis12]

I will test later today. If I remember correctly, when I did test gH and kH, it would turn out. No matter how many drops I put in, it would turn the water any color.

 

[aly_starh]

If you want the PH lower, try an indian Almond Leaf

 

[kribensis12]

Been there, done that. I had several in the tank, tannins everywhere, for months, and no avail.

 

[BigC]

Try using RO and Rainwater mixes if your water at source is too hard coupled with a high pH value.
I utilise Hydrochloric acid to reduce my pH levels somewhat for soft acid loving killifish.
I take it down as low as pH5 for certain species.
Also you can buy chemical buffers that will do the same trick or utilise CO2 infusion coupled to a Ph controller.
ATB
C

 

[OldMan47]

I have much the same water that you do Kribensis. When I wanted to drop the hardness, I used 3 parts rain water to 1 part tap water to get my TDS under 100 ppm. At that point the water responded to the typical methods that have already been suggested, basically tannin sources.

 

[kribensis12]

Hmm, good idea's. I still need to test my kH. I've been so busy this past week I haven't had the time. I barley got the WC's done!

 

[Jonathangerous]

If you say it's incredibly hard, then the KH is high which means you're screwed if you want to use traditional pH lowering methods short of dumping buckets of acid into your tank. To be fair, fish are readily adaptable, and generally, pH is much less of an issue than hardness itself (or just general conductivity). RO is the way to go here.