Lowering PH

ladayen

OK so I was wondering how I could lower the PH and hardness of my water, in the aquariums. I read Byrons article about adjusting these values, and just want to make sure I am understanding it correctly.

I use bottled water to lower the hardness of my water, and my PH will adjust automatically? Once I get a desired hardness/ph I can stop adding the bottled water and use regular tap water again and it should still still the same?

Yes I understand this is also a process that takes time and not to try to force it overnight. In a 35g tank how much bottled water should I use in my once-twice weekly water changes, assuming I change about 8 gallons at a time? ( this is specifically focused on my tetra tank atm, you can see under the aquarium tab)

BarbH

Question why are you wanting to lower the hardness and ph of your water? Do you know what these values are right now from your tap. If you do mix bottle water with your tap water you will need to conitnue to do so, because if you don't the bottle water will become diluted as you do water changes and eventually you will be back at 100% of your tap water. Unless your water is extremely hard or extremely basic, it is probably better to next try to mess around with the chemistry of the tank.

valachase

Our tests do not read as high as it is in hardness for our water(I do know that you can't even use the tap water here for coffee in the morning as within a few days you have a build up from it and have to replace the coffee machine :)... I do know that the highest the test will read is GH 180 and KH 240 and it's higher then that.... (I'm not sure as to why he wants to Lower PH or Hardness)

Hope this helps
Vala-Chase <------ (Ladayen's Wife)

TwinDad

Experiment with a gallon pitcher/bucket. Mix them check the Ph and hardness until you get the ratio you are looking for.

BarbH

I am sure that anyone who moves to the area not knowing about the water learns very quickly when they are unable to get their morning coffee You could mix the bottle water with tap to adjust the levels. Are you on city water or are you using well water. If on well water and using a softner I do believe that there is stuff in the softner that you don't want in the tank. Some one elese will have better knowledge than I do if that is the case. If you are on city water you should be able to find online the levels of your water from the local water people.

Byron

First question is, what fish species do you want to maintain?

Second, the hardness of the tap water. KH at 240ppm is not excessive but does indicate a reasonable buffering capability. The corresponding GH at 180ppm (about 10 dGH) is medium hard. I assume your pH is high 7's?

When I know these answers, I can comment further.

By the way, where in northern BC are you, as I'm in Vancouver (Pitt Meadows actually)?

Byron.

valachase

We currently have platys, a betta, some cory cats,black and white skirt tetras, zebra and pearl danios and we were thinking of getting a school of harlequin rasboras. (not all these fish are in the same tank :) but all use the same tap water.
Our PH reads around 7.6- 7.8 ish
We are in the Peace region (Fort St John) the lovely area of the province that is cut off from the world due to floods lol

Byron

Platy (and any other livebearers you might get in future) will be right at home in your tap water. No issues there.

The other fish although technically soft water fish are being commercially tank-raised and thus adapted to more basic water than would be wild caught fish. If you check the fish profiles on this site you will notice the ranges for water parameters are into the basic/medium hard. So I wouldn't be in a hurry to worry. However, lowering the hardness and pH a bit wouldn't hurt. So that brings me back to the initial question that I can now better respond to having ascertained the facts.

You can dilute the tap water with "pure" water such as distilled or RO (reverse osmosis) water that you can buy. Where you live, rainwater would likely be a less expensive option, unless you have industrial pollution nearby [thinking of oil or natural gas in that region, but more of a refinery or similar facility]. Mixing half and half will reduce hardness by half. Rainwater might go further, as it will be naturally slightly acidic. This would be onerous for me, with 7 tanks and some large ones at that; but with fewer and smaller tanks, it is an option.

If you do decide to try this, remember the platy needs straight tap water to be at its best, so its tank should be left alone. In soft slightly acidic water, livebearers do not do well long-term.

Byron.