Lower pH?

[MetalRavioli]

Hey everyone!

I recently added 6 keyhole cichlids and a leopard bushfish to my recently cycled 90 gallon aquarium. All the parameters were fine (other than the nitrate but I lowered that through water changes), however the pH seems to have increased to above 7.6. It looks to be around 8.0 even? How would I lower the pH without harming my fish?

all help is appreciated!

 

[anitstuk123]

A simple way that is commonly used is different types of botanicals.

 

[MetalRavioli]

A simple way that is commonly used is different types of botanicals.

any species in specific? I have a sand substrate and am not using any super cool light (its a UV), and no Co2. My tank currently has 4 java windelovs, 2 giant Anubis, 1 java fern and 1 red tiger lily

 

[anitstuk123]

Almond leaves and Alder cones are quite good. I believe that they release tannins too.

 

[GolemGolem]

Some leaf litter maybe, but I personally wouldn't worry about it too much. I wouldn't do chems unless I wanted to make that my full time job for as long as I wanted that PH reading.

 

[Rocksor]

Your ability to lower PH will depend on your water's buffering capacity (KH). Measure that first to see if is even possible with botannicals. With my KH of 8 degrees, it takes about 1 cup of sphagnum peat moss per 24 cups of water to lower it from 7.8-8 to 7.2. This also lowers the KH to about 5-6 degrees. I would basically need a peat substrate that fills at least around half the tank volume to lower my tap water PH and keep it there.

A more controlled manner would be to mix your tap water with reverse osmosis water.

 

[duanes]

Your ability to lower PH will depend on your water's buffering capacity (KH). Measure that first to see if is even possible with botannicals. With my KH of 8 degrees, it takes about 1 cup of sphagnum peat moss per 24 cups of water to lower it from 7.8-8 to 7.2. This also lowers the KH to about 5-6 degrees. I would basically need a peat substrate that fills at least around half the tank volume to lower my tap water PH and keep it there.

A more controlled manner would be to mix your tap water with reverse osmosis water.

Agree
Measure the pH, and alkalinity right from the tap.
High alkalinity means your tap water will resist pH change.

Also what are you using for substate?
If you substrate has lots of calcium based material, pH will remain steady and or maybe even go up.
Beach sand (aragonite) usually has lots of crushed coral and sea shells so will raise pH, as will substrate recovered from dolomite.

I believe what is meant by botanicals, are not necessarily live plants, but leaf litter, Reeibos tea, and as mentioned above, peat moss, although if your tap water has high alkalinity, it can resist even slight change.
My tap water leaves the faucet at 8.2 pH and is high in minerals, so I did n experiment with leaf litter in my 300 gal system, even covering the substrate with leaf litter, pH wouldn''t budge, link below
Experiment w Almond Leaves

 

[MetalRavioli]

Almond leaves and Alder cones are quite good. I believe that they release tannins too.

I've heard those work! Are there any specific brands I should go for, can I get them online? Or do they sell them in stores?

 

[MetalRavioli]

Your ability to lower PH will depend on your water's buffering capacity (KH). Measure that first to see if is even possible with botannicals. With my KH of 8 degrees, it takes about 1 cup of sphagnum peat moss per 24 cups of water to lower it from 7.8-8 to 7.2. This also lowers the KH to about 5-6 degrees. I would basically need a peat substrate that fills at least around half the tank volume to lower my tap water PH and keep it there.

A more controlled manner would be to mix your tap water with reverse osmosis water.

This is a good idea. My KH kit ran out of drops a bit ago, so I'll go purchase one soon. Thank you very much for the info!

 

[MetalRavioli]

Agree
Measure the pH, and alkalinity right from the tap.
High alkalinity means your tap water will resist pH change.

Also what are you using for substate?
If you substrate has lots of calcium based material, pH will remain steady and or maybe even go up.
Beach sand (aragonite) usually has lots of crushed coral and sea shells so will raise pH, as will substrate recovered from dolomite.

I believe what is meant by botanicals, are not necessarily live plants, but leaf litter, Reeibos tea, and as mentioned above, peat moss, although if your tap water has high alkalinity, it can resist even slight change.
My tap water leaves the faucet at 8.2 pH and is high in minerals, so I did n experiment with leaf litter in my 300 gal system, even covering the substrate with leaf litter, pH wouldn''t budge, link below
Experiment w Almond Leaves

For my substrate, I'm just using some sand. No crushed coral or anything. I think I'll probably be going with some of these pH lowering botanicals, if you have any tips on how to collect leaf litter, or any links to any of the such or almond leaves/alder cones that work, let me know! I appreciate the help greatly!