FishProfiles.com Message Forums

dank104,

Want to lower your PH and have your tetras love you for it. Put some peat moss in your filter and add some or more driftwood (quiet LF)

Forget those buffers and chemicals.

My Scapes

I agree if you get tired of the RO, and don't mind the look of a little tannin in your water, then go the peat moss/drift wood route.

Generally cheaper.

I've used small amounts of Distilled Water, Spring Water, Peat Moss, Driftwood, and chemical additives.

By far the most consistantly accurate for me was the natural approach.

The water from my tap is 8.5 and after a year this one tank has settled at about a ph of 8.2. I have Blue Tetras and Dojo Loaches in there, which I acclimated over a period of about 5 hours. They are both doing great, no signs of stress.

thanks for all your input!

i've been doing water changes with ro spring water and it's gradually lowered the ph to 7.4, which i'm satisfied with and the water has become softer. the only was, that the walmart where i'm at charges .64 cents per gallon of spring water. never thought about getting the refillable spring water but that makes sense b/c it prob will be cheaper.

sham, i have neon tetras, buenos aires tetras and bleeding heart tetras. from my experience, the bleeding hearts seem more sensitive than the neon tetras.

Peat does color the water slightly, but as tetratech said the tetras will love it as the water they are found in naturally is peat filtered. In fact to breed them they need peat. Purigen may take out the colour without removing the humic acid. I use peat without purigen, I just test the pH, to be sure the peat is working. The water is not too dark, and it sets off the colours of my fish spectacularly! I half-fill a filter bag with the peat, rinse it and place it in my Aqua-clear HOB filter, I put either carbon or bio-max media on top to hold it in place and catch any fine bits that may make it thru the bag. It doesn't really lower the pH but it keeps it from jumping up. I use pH adjust down when I need to lower it a bit, but I never have to use a lot. And usually only when I am lazy with the water change. I have started putting a bag of peat in the change bucket before a wc to get the water condition closer to the tanks. Seems to work fine.

"If you're afraid you'll make a mistake, you won't make anything."
-Family Circus

i will have to find the name of it, but i used a ph buffer that is chrystals that slowly disolve and help set ph to 7.0...when your tank is balanced you shouldnt need to use such products, but it is helpfull for when you first start out. this is the only product i have seen that showed any effect, especially a long term affect.

I used this stuff a few years ago and all it seemed to do was make my tank cloudy for a few days. By the time the cloudiness had gone away so ahd the "proper pH" It would keep the tank a 7.0 for a few day but then after that the water went right back. I don't recommend it at all


Christina

I would just keep diluting your tap water with distilled or spring water. Should work quite well and as long as you pay attention to the amount of each the ph will stay a stable 7.8 or if you add more distilled or spring water you can lower it even more. Distilled would work better because it's nearly pure water so as long as you don't use distilled by itself it will soften your water and lower your ph more than using spring water. Plus I think it's actually cheaper per gallon. Here both the walmart and food store sell refillable ro water for 25cents a gallon. Just make sure not to use it by itself or it will make the water too soft.
Driftwood will only temporarily leach tannins and eventually no longer lower ph. It will also discolor the water as much as peat. I always found adding peat moss directly to the tank a real pain and diluting the tap water was much simpler for about the same price as buying peat moss. Most ph controlling products are temporary and again a real pain to deal with. Seachem does make some products I've had success with like discus buffer. It didn't lower my ph as much as it said it would(5.0) but I did end up with a lower and stable ph(7.2). Provided you add the same amount every time and are willing to do some tests and experiment with how much is needed to affect your tapwater. A good kh and ph test kit are required.
Finally what tetras are you getting? Almost all species will easily adapt to less than 1ph difference between your water and the store. Tetras like congos will actually enjoy 8.0 ph water. Now if we're talking rummynose it's a different story and acclimating them could require some effort.

the kh in my tank was real high at first, but it's down to the higher ideal end now.

i've thought of using peat moss, but like "little_fish", didn't want it to discolor my tank. maybe i'll go with some driftwood.

"peat moss"

That's right, I forgot all about it. And I was about to convice dank104 to buy hundreds of dollars worth of planted tank equipment. Glad you jumped in.

But doesn't peat moss discolor the water? Would you be able to clean it then with Carbon or Purigen?

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

has anyone used or heard of this product? it's called "proper ph 7.0" and this is what's on the label. it's made by aquarium pharmaceuticals.

Automatically sets and stabilizes pH at 7.0. Removes chlorine & detoxifies heavy metals. For community aquariums. Contains Aloe Vera and electrolytes to reduce fish stress. Use when setting up aquarium or changing water.

It is not all that touchy as it is a rather expensive subject .

The plants will not lower the ph, but the CO2 can. Nevertheless, simply adding CO2 without the plants would create algae and that is not a solution either. The money part might kick in when identifying your light situation (tank size and Wattage) and your desired plant selection. Matching these up and potentially getting into the plant thing (like I did) can be overall (plants, CO2, Lights) a few hundred dollars plus plus.

Do you have any idea what your KH (Carbonate Hardness) is?

I just remembered that there is also the possibility of using RO (reverse osmosis) water to lower your ph. Do you know anything about this option?

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

yeah i've thought about getting fish that match my current ph, but since i already have all these fish in my tank, i figured i'd try to lower it just a little bit more. i think may continue to do water changes with spring water and gradually bring the ph down. i'd be happy at 7.4.

would plants lower the ph level?
can you explain to me a little more about CO2? it seems like this is a touchy subject.

dank104,

Yes, I guess it makes sense that you tried to lower the ph.

Can I assume that you would have a stable ph of 7.8 now in the long run? If so, I think it might be possible to adjust your tetras (what kind anyway) to that level. A SECOND OPINION here would help out as I never had to deal with this. Slowly adjusting would be best achieved by adding very little water from your tank to the fish bag, about every 5 to 10 min, for a few hours (3 to 4) until the ph is close to your tank’s (way more water in bag from tank than was in bag originally).

A second option here would be to add plants, lights, and – here it comes – CO2 to your tank. CO2 lowers the ph. If you are interested we can discuss this further.

On the other hand, one common saying is “don’t adjust your fish to your ph, instead get fish that match your ph” or something like that . You have naturally a very good setup for African Lake Cichlids. Ever thought of having these instead?

Hope this helps,

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

i had a high ph of about 8.4. i did a few water changes with spring water and now it's down to about 7.8. the tetras i want are kept in a ph of about 7.2 at the LFS. they recommended i use this to lower the ph before getting more tetras so i used it, but the ph hasn't lowered. i'm guessing since my water is really hard that it's preventing the ph from lowering?

I've never used it either, but have heard to stay away from it. Unless the fish are under stress from extreme pH one way or the other, its best not to mess around with pH.

---

I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
~ Mae West

dank104,

I haven’t used the product, so I cannot tell you if it is good or not.

But I would like to know why you are considering using it?

Do you have a very high/low ph?

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Never used it but been told that it's not very good.

"I am a believer in punctuality, though it makes me very lonely" EV Lucas