Need advice on lowering pH in SA tanks

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Mythic Figment

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 27, 2012
2,117
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Florida
Hi all,

I have 2 55 gallon tanks setup up at the moment and they are both housing SA cichlids. One houses 5 German blue rams, a few ghost shrimp, an adopted lone lemon tetra, and a Siamese flying fox. This tank is not completely stocked as I would like to get two pairs of breeding rams with 1-3 angelfish, the SAE and maybe a small school of lemon tetras.The other houses 4 juvenile turquoise severum (ranging from 2.5-3.5" each). They will eventually be getting a larger tank when I either get a pair or when I decide to sell off 2 and keep 2 because they outgrow it (whichever happens first). I run both tanks at 81 degrees with live plants and driftwood. The natural pH of my water is about 7.5-7.6. The driftwood is only bringing down the pH by about 0.2-0.4 since my pH tests between 7.1 and 7.3. I have tested my KH to between 40-60 ppm. So my buffer system is not crazy overpowering, but I'm wondering some effective ways to reduce the pH to something between 6.5 and 6.8.

I don't have the money to sink into an RO unit right now. It's just too expensive. I have read peat, almond leaves and alder cones are a good way to more naturally reduce pH and soften water. I am thinking about buying some Fluval peat granules to put in a media bag and drop into my HOB filters. Do you think this will work? I can't seem to find almond leaves or alder cones online. I kind of want to try alder cones for future use with fry for their anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. Can someone recommend a good place to order them from?

Any suggestions are welcome. Thank you for all your help.


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I bought a 5lb bag of peat moss from a garden center about 3 years ago for about 5 dollars and I'm still using it. Put some in a mesh bag and stick it in one of the filter compartments. Change it every couple of months or as indicated my your test kit. Driftwood added to the tank helps too. Never used the other stuff so can't help you with that.
 
To bring it lower peat is more than enough. You might even lowering it too much.

Look also for that Amazonian Extract liquid they sell in stores. But peat and wood will certainly do the trick.
 
I use the driftwood, Ehiem Torf Peat Pellets and Almond Leaves. I don't think you can get a stable lowering of Ph without RO. My water is 7.6 out of the tap and with my ghetto buffering, I am at about 6.9-7.1.
 
My pH is the same and I've bred nearly every species of severum and both species of rams. I don't think you need to worry about it. The cichlids you listed do fairly well in a pH in the mid-7s.

Your water hardness may be more of an issue if you have problems getting the fish to breed. My water is only moderately hard and it's still not been a problem.
 
ryansmith83 said:
My pH is the same and I've bred nearly every species of severum and both species of rams. I don't think you need to worry about it. The cichlids you listed do fairly well in a pH in the mid-7s.

Your water hardness may be more of an issue if you have problems getting the fish to breed. My water is only moderately hard and it's still not been a problem.
Click to expand...

And I am guessing the only way to bring down the KH or GH is to use RO?

I don't have an issue with the rams breeding. They have spawned a few times now. The eggs last longer and longer every time. Last time I had a few wrigglers. Granted, they were being housed with the severums at that point and I the parents got jumpy and ate their eggs out of fear. Now that the sevs are in their own tank and only the lemon tetra, ghost shrimp and SAE remain, I think I can get them to go through with the whole thing. The sevs are still too young to pair off yet. But hopefully two of them will pair off and make plenty of babies for me. :)

My GH tests at about 180+ ppm. I think that is a 11 or 12 dH. Too hard? KH is about 80 ppm. The 40-60 ppm I gave earlier was what my 20 was when I used distiller, bottled RO water for half the new water added to the tank during water changes. Oops. Sorry for the mid-info.
 
CrimsonFog said:
I use the driftwood, Ehiem Torf Peat Pellets and Almond Leaves. I don't think you can get a stable lowering of Ph without RO. My water is 7.6 out of the tap and with my ghetto buffering, I am at about 6.9-7.1.
Click to expand...

If I could get my water down to a stable 6.9, I would be happy.

So is there any way to address the GH and KH without using an expensive RO unit or buying $30 of RO/distiller bottled water each week?


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Patrick Kostka said:
If I could get my water down to a stable 6.9, I would be happy.

So is there any way to address the GH and KH without using an expensive RO unit or buying $30 of RO/distiller bottled water each week?


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Click to expand...

Mixing RO and tap is the easiest way. I'm still not sure I understand why you need to alter it? Is it just because you want to?

The problem with chemically altering your water is that there's a chance the parameters will fluctuate between each water change if you don't measure/mix precisely. Stable water parameters with your current pH and hardness are better than shifting parameters that sometimes occur when you're trying to lower pH/hardness. This is especially true if you are doing large water changes.
 
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