Can anyone tell me how to lower my pH?!

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J

jabsthetank

Candiru
MFK Member
Nov 11, 2010
617
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48
California
I've been cycling my tank for like 3 weeks now and the pH is staying at 8.2 but I want it down to at least 7.2
Should I just use a buffer? I've put a little in already and I added some peat about 5 days ago but there is no change...
Also I have a large piece of manzanita and a few plants. My substrate is sand which could be a factor.
Please help :help2:
 
is there any particular reason why you want to lower the PH? the only reason i ask is most people tend to agree that trying to constantly adjust the PH after water changes could be more stressful to the fish then just having it at a somewhat consistent level...

But i think to lower PH, normally people will use driftwood in their tanks, although over a long enough time, even the driftwood may not help too much...
 
Well there isn't any fish in there right now but I would like to lower it so I can add some..
8.2 is too high for my desired stock so I would like it lower...
But peat does the same thing as driftwood right? Or even better?
And I have a large maybe 3 foot manzanita in the tank already.
 
Honestly im not sure how peat effects water PH as i've never personally used it, but i do have a lot of driftwood in my tanks and they hover around 6 - 6.5 PH

I've also seen PH adjusters you can buy in liquid form that either raise or lower a tanks PH, but again, never personally tried them, so cant tell you if it actually works or not but might be worth looking into?




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Well that's what I mentioned before. I used a little pH buffer to see how it would affect it and there was literally no effect...
I'm just so confused as to why I got no change.
 
Your ph is high from your tap water correct? Well the cheapest thing to do is to get fish that like the higher ph. What causes the ph to be high is the carbonic (k) and General hardness of the water is high. that means you have a lot of mineral in your water. You need to have your water tested to be sure what is in it. There are chemicals that water companies put in the water to artificially keep it high. If you have done this and the water is safe the only thing that will reduce the minerals in the tap water then is a reverse osmosis unit. these remove the mineral so the ph can drop. These units remove all the minerals and are expensive and time consuming waiting for the water. If your tank is large it can take days to collect enough water for a water change. To this water you then combine it with your regular tap water to get the desired ph. Wood will not lower ph for hard water. Wood put some tannins in the water to keep the ph lower for fish that desire it. What are the fish you wish to keep? Some soft acid loving fish do fine in high ph water as long as you do not want to breed them
 
Product info: "SeaChem Neutral Regulator™ adjusts pH to neutral (pH 7.0) from either a low or high pH and maintains it there. It softens water by precipitating calcium and magnesium while removing any chlorine, chloramine, or ammonia. The use of Neutral Regulator™ makes other conditioning unnecessary."

I have not used this, but heard people mention it. when used regularly and with all water changes, it is supposed to just maintain a level ph, without swings.
The "ph Up" and "ph Down" products are not a healthy approach. Neutral ph, being non drastic is safer because it is self limiting.
but may not be best for spawning really soft water species, especially wild caught.
ph changes should be gradual.
 
The water out of my tap is 5.5 pH and 160 on the scale for hardness. I dont do anything to adjust the pH of the water when i put it into the tanks that have sand because it immediately jumps to 7.6 pH. In the tanks that have just gravel, the pH remains the same.
 
Back in the day when I kept Discus, I used peat just as joe jaskot has posted as I'm not a fan of using the PH Up or Down products (or chemicals of any type). With my goldies, the PH is typically pretty stable, but the water where I live has a low PH & KH right from the tap, so I use baking soda to keep the PH where it needs to be.
 
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