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I need something to lower the ph of my girlfriends water. She has a well and the ph is 8.9

Ideas please

Very close to the max pH which is 9.0...

If she has a water softener system on her well water then the water should test out at about 7.6-8 pH.

If she hasn't, I would strongly suggest she have one installed.

Post back.

--garyroland.

Put some peat in the filter. Also, softened water makes your skin better and your hair softer, so it would be worth investing in a water softener, in my opinion

max ph is 14

Add some peat into the filter. THat would most likely be the easiest way to do it. Though bottled water has a ph of around 7. So you could do water changes with that. I also do reccomend haveing a softener installed as it will save time and money.


==fish1

Jakeoman - Gary means the max pH that most tropicals can take. Between about 5 and 9 lie the values that are tolerated by most trops; get up to 14 and they're all dead, even the Tanganyikans.

-Molly
Visit shelldwellers.com!

I'm with Gary all the way on the water treatment, but have some additional questions. That's probably the easiest way to address it long term.

-Just for the heck of it, can you tell us what she has in the tank for gravel and rocks?

-Does the well water test the same straight out of the well versus a 24-48 hour period of agitating with an airstone? My water (tap, not well) comes out at 7.0, but rises to 8.0 after it is agitated 24 hours. This is because compressed gases in the water, which make it acidic exchange with the atmosphere and once equalized it stops at 8.0. It is much rarer that it would drop, but I've read examples in these forums. Try it. Test the water again, then test from the same source after 24 hours. If you don't have a spare airstone, put some in a jar, give it a good shake any time you walk by and remove the lid. I would check after 48 hours if you use this method. See what the difference is.

- Can you get gH and kH values for us? Many fish stores will do this for you if you take a bag of water in.

One way to soften it, if it is a smaller tank, is to buy distilled water from the store and make sure that something like 1/3 of the mix going back in is distilled. It's really senseless to do this without looking at your hardness values tho.

Also, can you please tell us if the tank is running identical to the tap? Try to differentiate. If you have not tested the well water independent of the tank water, then you need to do that. If there is a difference, it could be something in the gravel or rocks.

Last edited by Cory_Di at 12-Jan-2005 17:48

A constant supply of peat would be required to maintain any decent pH...

Even then, I'm not too thrilled with the ability of peat to do much except leach a little tannin and make your tank look like dusk in Detroit.

--garyroland.

Even then, I'm not too thrilled with the ability of peat to do much except leach a little tannin and make your tank look like dusk in Detroit.

Oh, Pick on Detroit night, eh? Beats that Vero Beach stuff trying to pass as water.

I knew you'd like that, Diane...

--garyroland.