Really high pH

[903Herp]

Ok so my tap water at the house is about 8.4. I have 2 pieces of drift wood. A oversized hob filter on back and a spong filter on the inside and a small hob just to hold carbon extra etc. I would really like to get my pH lower. I have tried adding in moss balls but after about a day its demolished. I would really like to stay away from chemicals. Anything that I can add to safely to bring down the pH to around 7.6-8?

Tank is 45g tall
black sand substrate
1 piece spider driftwood
1 piece Malaysian driftwood
filtration turns the tank over 5x/hr.

Stock:
1 albino channel catfish
1 lima shobelnose catfish
1 albino BN pleco
1 candy strip pleco
1 tire track eel
2 baby gold gene jack dempseys

ps. Please dont bash stock I have arrangements lined up for when my fish outgrow my tank.

 

[duanes]

A pH of 8.4 is not that high, or should I say, not that high for many fish.
The rift lakes of Africa are much higher, so is Lake Michigan for that matter.
I live next to Lake Michigan, and it is where my tap water comes from, and have learned it is better to go with fish that appreciate my tap water rather than try to mess with pH, and I worked 20 years as a chemist/micrbiologist.
Sure I would love to keep Uaru fernadenzeppezii, but for me, its just not in the cards. With my tap water all African rift lake fish, and most Central Americans work well.
Trying to alter pH for every water change would be complicated without an expensive RO unit, and consistent water quality with regular water changes are more important than anything else.

 

[Aquanero]

Agreed, messing with water chemistry is an uphill battle at best and stressful on the fish.

 

[903Herp]

Thank you guys for the input. Its always kind of worried me since I have always been told to try and shoot for a pH of around 7.2-7.6

 

[numbah84]

As others have said having a consistent 8.4 is not that bad. Most methods of changing ph can be pretty drastic, for example using peat filtration would lower your ph, but it might make it crash to 6.0 if you're not careful!

 

[duanes]

A pH of around 7 has always been considered a kind of old school, generic, safe for all community fish area. All the bread and butter species, the farm raised fish will live comfortably in a neutral pH of 7.
But as fish keeping has progressed species from a wide range of water parameters have become available.
Most rift lake Africans, and Central Americans come from waters in the 8-9 range.
Amazonian species such as Uaru fernadenzeppizii and some wild angels would prefer pH in the 4 -5 range, while most others from Amazonia or other areas of South America do fine in the 6-7 range.
A higher pH also often offers a bit of extra buffering capacity, providing a bit of a safety net for fish urine (acid) buildup if one is lax with water changes.

 

[HarleyK]

Agreed, messing with water chemistry is an uphill battle at best and stressful on the fish.

x2

 

[DB junkie]

I listened to the voices of this site for years in regards to leaving the water alone and just wishing the fish get used to it. It's kind of like hoping to win the lottery. It's been years and I'm still waiting for it to happen.

There's clearly 2 options here, you can change the water. RO isn't expensive. IF you decide it's too much headache for a fish tank you can still enjoy a nice refreshing glass of clean pure water with no TDS. Or explore the saltier side of the hobby.....

A 45 gallon tank shouldn't be hard to manage...... All you have to do is use the same ration of tap water to RO water. Get some tubs, tanks, vats, ANY kind of container and just use the same ratio when you do water changes.

New RO systems can be had for like $150. Another $30-40 for TDS monitoring. Grab a ph meter/test kit, and maybe a conductivity meter and give it a try. You don't HAVE to watch your fish live crappy lives in rock hard water if you don't want to. MFK shouldn't be telling you to take the easy way out. They should be helping you try to achieve your goals and if you want a PH of 7 then maybe it's worth at least trying before giving up and going with the flow, cause if you're like me after a few years of not seeing the results you want then you're going to do it anyways. I've been watching my PH fall and have wondered why the hell I didn't have the balls to do it 5 years ago.

I'd be happy to share the system I built to be able to do water changes of the same ratio of RO to tap. I could never get my PH to move using driftwood or moss, I'm like 9 for PH here.

 

[903Herp]

I listened to the voices of this site for years in regards to leaving the water alone and just wishing the fish get used to it. It's kind of like hoping to win the lottery. It's been years and I'm still waiting for it to happen.

There's clearly 2 options here, you can change the water. RO isn't expensive. IF you decide it's too much headache for a fish tank you can still enjoy a nice refreshing glass of clean pure water with no TDS. Or explore the saltier side of the hobby.....

A 45 gallon tank shouldn't be hard to manage...... All you have to do is use the same ration of tap water to RO water. Get some tubs, tanks, vats, ANY kind of container and just use the same ratio when you do water changes.

New RO systems can be had for like $150. Another $30-40 for TDS monitoring. Grab a ph meter/test kit, and maybe a conductivity meter and give it a try. You don't HAVE to watch your fish live crappy lives in rock hard water if you don't want to. MFK shouldn't be telling you to take the easy way out. They should be helping you try to achieve your goals and if you want a PH of 7 then maybe it's worth at least trying before giving up and going with the flow, cause if you're like me after a few years of not seeing the results you want then you're going to do it anyways. I've been watching my PH fall and have wondered why the hell I didn't have the balls to do it 5 years ago.

I'd be happy to share the system I built to be able to do water changes of the same ratio of RO to tap. I could never get my PH to move using driftwood or moss, I'm like 9 for PH here.

Thank you for the input. I am very interested in the RO set up. Admittedly I have not done enough reading on the RO systems and how to use them properly. I would love to just have my pH down to like a 7.6 so I a can have a larger variety of fish if I choose. I like to know that my animals have the best lives they can have.