Hey guys my ph is a little high in my tank I was wondering how you guys lower yours. It is also a planted tank
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Ph
- Thread starter Vilardz3190
- Start date
Aqualoon is right. Where it would be ideal to have and maintain the exact ph a certain species needs a constant high or low ph is better than a fluctuating one. To much variation in ph can stress a fish out and usually only bad comes from a stressed out fish.
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Short Story Time:
When I first started out in the hobby I kept african cichlids and because I have hard water I thought that's all I could keep (my tap is 8.4). So I started to research ways to lower pH without using the stuff in the bottle as I wanted to keep new world cichlids and do a planted tank. Tried those water softener pillows, peat moss in my hob filters but it never seemed to work. I learned that in order to lower my pH I needed to focus on lowering the GH and KH. I also heard (never tried it though) is that if you have a CO2 system on your planted tank that it will soften your water.
The point of the story - I stressed the crap out of my fish by trying all these things and in return I couldn't consistently keep a lower pH. Did some more research and learned that unless I'm keeping wild caught or something along the lines of discuss then my hard water will be just fine as long as I can keep it at a stable value.
Another Short Story:
The above was done at a prior house which I moved out of this spring. The new place I am in has a water softener, to make a long story short a huge swing in pH caused by the water softener killed off my entire tank. Hard lesson learned but a lesson I will never forget. Don't use or bypass an in home water softener and stability is key when it comes to pH.
When I first started out in the hobby I kept african cichlids and because I have hard water I thought that's all I could keep (my tap is 8.4). So I started to research ways to lower pH without using the stuff in the bottle as I wanted to keep new world cichlids and do a planted tank. Tried those water softener pillows, peat moss in my hob filters but it never seemed to work. I learned that in order to lower my pH I needed to focus on lowering the GH and KH. I also heard (never tried it though) is that if you have a CO2 system on your planted tank that it will soften your water.
The point of the story - I stressed the crap out of my fish by trying all these things and in return I couldn't consistently keep a lower pH. Did some more research and learned that unless I'm keeping wild caught or something along the lines of discuss then my hard water will be just fine as long as I can keep it at a stable value.
Another Short Story:
The above was done at a prior house which I moved out of this spring. The new place I am in has a water softener, to make a long story short a huge swing in pH caused by the water softener killed off my entire tank. Hard lesson learned but a lesson I will never forget. Don't use or bypass an in home water softener and stability is key when it comes to pH.
It's really high. At least 8 maybe higher. But they have lived in it for a long time now at least 6 months.
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You're fine then, I wouldn't worry about it and 'keep on keeping on'.
It's been years since I did all this research so my terminology is way off but harder water is more stable and less susceptible to pH swings then softer water because it has buffers of some sort.
It's been years since I did all this research so my terminology is way off but harder water is more stable and less susceptible to pH swings then softer water because it has buffers of some sort.
I had the same problem and my fish did not like the high pH so I gradually switched out tap water with soft water that the grocery store sells, yes it takes a while but the hardness will go down and the pH will go down and stay pretty consistent, I had a pH of 8.6 and now its down to 7.5.