Ph swings in a new setup. Need advice.

[ranjana]

I'm setting up a new tank for a black ghost but my tap water ph is about 8.2
Now i can set it up from a store bought RO water, but it will be really hard to get in times of emergencies. so the Other option i have is to use a lot of drift wood and almond leaves to naturally bring the ph down before adding the fish. what I'm worried about is that, if i do a water change for the tank with my normal water after the tank ph has reduced to about 7.4, will that screw up the ph again? or should i do more frequent small water changes ? about 10% every 2-3 days?
Tank size : 60 gal
I have some clay as substrate, little driftwood and some rocks.

currently I'm running a 15 gal qt tank before setting up the 60gal.
Thank you so much in advance.

 

[dan518]

Bogwood and leaves will add more tannins to the water but won't have much of a effect on the pH or hardness
Best option would be get your own ro unit or filter water in a large tub for a week with peat moss and then mix with tap water to get a stable ph and gh reading.

 

[dan518]

I know next to nothing about knifefish if there hardy enough just use the tap water, a stable hardness is more beneficial to most fish.

 

[ranjana]

I don't think they can stand a ph of 8.2. will the ph fluctuate a lot if i do small water changes with normal tap water though ?

 

[dan518]

If you are using tap water for water changes, your going to have to do big enough ones to keep the fish healthy in doing so your tank water will end up having the same parmiters as your tap water

 

[Yohanon]

If all else fails, you opt for African cichlids which are used to higher ph. they are also very beautiful. The most important thing about water parameters is that they are stable. Fish can be very adaptable.

 

[DN328]

I dont know much about knife fish, but I'd rather just acclimate them to the higher ph. Unless you reduce prior to WC, then there's no point. From what I read driftwood and crushed coral helps lower and even stabilize, I dont know how quickly they can happen for WC as there's many variables.

 

[tlindsey]

Crushed coral will make water more alkaline.