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Whats the best way to lower ph?

Hi,
Probably the least expensive, and easiest on the fish is
to purchase some peat moss. Put it in the toe of some
pantyhose, tie the end off, and place it in your filter so
that the water flows through it.
It will slowly lower your pH.

There are chemicals that do it. However, once used you
really need to keep adding it to the tank, with every top
off, and water change. It can get expensive, especially
if you purchase it from a pet store. "PH DOWN" is its
name and can be purchased less expensively, in bulk, from
any pool supply company.

If you use chemicals, such as pH down, then you will need
to mix it slowly with your water. Do not change the pH of
the tank more than say, 0.2. Ideally you would wait a week
before changing it again. The slower the shift in pH the
less stress on the fish.

This advice is in response to your question, and
based on my assumption that you have tank water that is
say 7.8 and you want to keep something in water around
6.8. If your water is between 7.0 and say, 7.6,or
even 7.8, I would simply acclimate the fish to the water
in the tank (slowly) and not fret about it.

Frank


Last edited by FRANK at 12-May-2005 09:19

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buy some ph lowering powder stuff.. it works good.

Generally you don't need to lower ph. It's best to just leave it alone. The only exception is if you are dealing with very sensitive fish (discus) or trying to spawn something difficult. I have amazon fish in 8.0 water and many have spawned. I tried using peat moss and in water as hard as mine all I got was a dark brown tank that not even carbon could remove and .4 less ph. It was really not worth it. The best way I found is to dilute the harder water with distilled or reverse osmosis water that has a neutral to slightly acidic ph. You can also use bottled drinking water that has a ph of around 6.8. It just gets expensive no matter what method you use and if you are using chemicals such as ph down you run a high risk of having an unstable ph which is much more dangerous to fish than a ph out of their preferred range.

Well my ph is about 7.9-8.0, wich is ok for sa cichlids and tetras anyway i guess.

So far I have kept angels, rams, black neons, otos, congo tetras, emperor tetras, yoyo loaches, various plecos, farlowellas, threadfins... in 8.0-8.2 ph water without any losses due to the water. The otos and tetras have also spawned for me. Just acclimate very slowly. I usually test the water from the bag when I get new fish so I know how far off it is from mine.

youhave to be very careful about how much peat you use
and if the carbonate hardness (scientificly called tempery hardness) is 5-10 degrees it's most likely that, that is the cause of your pH of 7.8 which is a good thing because Ca(CO3)2 Calcium BiCarbonate is a buffer an will minimize a changes in pH. if you were to use peat it will convert the KH to general hardness (scientificly called perminant hardness)thereby completely distroying]:| the buffer effect.if it turns out not to be due to the KH than i still wouldn't use peat i'd use a CO2 unit.

Gold

Using peat moss or driftwood does not lower a kh below 3 and usually not below 5 so it doesn't destroy your buffer. It can create a ph below 6.0 though but at that point you have blackwater. It absorbs calcium and magnesium ions releasing tannic acid which is what lowers the carbonate hardness(kh), general hardness(gh), and the ph as well as giving the water it's brown color. If you have a kh up around 10+ your going to have some real dark water before your ph drops enough to be worth the effort.

Last edited by sham at 12-May-2005 19:37

]:|]:|if the buffer wasn't destroyed the pH wouldn'd change untill the buffer had been destroyed]:|]:|

Last edited by goldfishkeeper at 12-May-2005 19:51

Last edited by goldfishkeeper at 12-May-2005 19:51

a buffer won't allow any change in the pH untill the buffer is used up

Last edited by goldfishkeeper at 12-May-2005 19:52

the Mg2(CO3)2 and Ca(CO3)2 (carbonate hardness) are nessesary to stabelise the pH]:|]:|]:|]:|]:|]:|]:|]:|]:|]:|

I would add Peat Granules. Fluval makes a good peat granule.
I add 1lb to each of my filters to maintain my ph at 6.6.
I have Angels, Discus, and lots of S.A. fish.
S.A. fish really will look better and be more colorful in an appropriate water hardness.
Peat is the only way to go.
I would never never use any type of PH Lowering chemical to your tank, they are expensive, can ruin your tank, and cause more harm than good. Always do a natural route first.


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A kh of 5 is more than enough to keep the ph stable so it is in no way destroyed only lowered. If I buy bottled water it has a ph of 6.8 and a kh closer to 5-8 but it is still stable. We are talking about soft water fish so using up the kh and lowering the ph is a good thing. Unless your starting water is already very soft or you are dealing with fish that prefer a high ph your probably not going to accomplish using up too much kh and lowering the ph too far for the fish. However the point I made earlier is that lowering of the ph is rarely needed and more work than it's worth. Most fish will adjust up to 8.0 and even thrive given plenty of time to acclimate. It is useful when spawning fish or keeping more sensitive species or older wild caught fish that just can't adjust.