How do i lower my ph?

MoneyMitch

i have a ph hovering around 8.0 now i dont have any fish yet just my substrate and rock (which passed the fizz test with vinegar) i know theres chemicals to lower it but is this permanent when you use chems? what is a natrual way to do it?

aunt kymmie

Natural ways would be peat & driftwood. What fish are you keeping that require a lower ph?

MoneyMitch

not totaslly sure on the stock list yet, but i want elephant nose fish for sure and they need something around a 6.5. about how much driftwood do you think ill need for a 55? im trying to get it around 7.0

aunt kymmie

Hummm. My tap is 8.0. I have five very large chunks of driftwood (driftwood takes about half the space in the tank) in my heavily planted tank and that combination lowered my ph to 7.8. You need to go from 8.0 to 7.0 so something more substantial is going to be required. I'm not a fan of adding chemicals and I know there's a way to buffer naturally without making your tank a chemical soup but I don't know how. I remember reading about it on this forum. Other members will be able to help with this, hopefully they'll chime in soon!

MoneyMitch

i do have a solution but its going to be a pain in the butt... i have a r/o filter for the house but as yall know r/o comes out pretty slow so it would take all day, not to mention the hauling of the water... the r/o water is around 6 to 6.4 so im thinking if i empty half of the water then mix half of the r/o water that might help balance it? i know for a fact that none of the rocks are causing it to raise and neither is my sand since it was all fizz tested. How much does PH weigh in on fish stress factors anyways? and are plants sensitive to ph aswell? i dont really want to have any livebears so im kinda stuck what do you guys think? if i add that ph down stuff isnt that bad for the fish? and doesnt it only work for a limited amount of time?

fighttest

where can you get a cheap r/o filter because iv been thinking about getting one myself

MoneyMitch

ours is from a local plumping store here in Marysville, they installed it when they put in our water softener. check online google it. pretty much all the online fish shops sell some type of r/o system. you could also try home depot or lowes as there r/o filters dont have the 500$ word aquarium on them.


On a diffrent note i found out a little bit more about PH. my LFS told me ph isnt nessicarly important for fish. it does play a role though the trick is getting them aqlimated properly to reduce tss (tank shock syndrome). they reccomended that i use like a 5 gallon bucket to float the bag in and then use airline tubing with a valve at one end and get a siphon from my tank and run it through that tube with the valve and i need to adjust the valve to a drip like system. then after some time (around 1hr) get a ph test of the bag water and if its close to the mains ph then its cool to throw in the fish.

Phatfish

When ammonia is converted to nitrite and the finally nitrate, the pH lowers naturally. If you're familiar with marine aquariums that happens pretty often when something in the tank dies. The body decomposes and there's a sudden ammonia spike. The pH then lowers.

If you want to do it naturally, throw a raw shrimp in your tank since there's no fish in it and let it decompose.

If you want to add something that's not very chemically, add a bit of vinegar. I don't remember the exact dosage but just google it.

MoneyMitch

so your saying ph will lower after the cycle then?

aunt kymmie

This is exactly what I do. I drip acclimate until the ph matches perfectly. I purchased a dozen neons about two weeks ago. My LFS keeps a 6.6 ph, mine is 7.8. I did the drip and the fish are doing fine. Not sure long term effect as neons are sensitive but we'll see.