Has anyone Tried these Ph up & down additives... on Amazon

[Magnum Man]

Amazon.com

Amazon.com

I know it's not a "fix all" but I'm switching to RO, because my water is too hard & Alkaline... slowly blending it in... ( I already know about the minerals ) but discounting them, eventually I'll end up with neutral water... I tried adding peat beads before ( when I had a ton of carbonite hardness ) & it didn't soften my water & just stained it very dark... I could try that again with next to no carbonite hardness, in a much smaller dose, & maybe it would be OK... & I would like to change my water as naturally as possible ( I have drift wood in several tanks, but I think after being in alkaline water so long ( about a year ) I'm not seeming to be getting anymore tannins, or at least the PH is not coming down yet... trying to do everything slowly... just wondering if these chemicals, will get things a little push in the right direction ... I have a rainbow tank, that I have not added RO to, as it's on the other side of the house from the RO unit... but I I'll have the opposite issues once RO is being added there ( I think the fish are starting to suffer, as the alkaline is extremely high ) so I'll be running a line there from my RO unit soon...

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Let me see if I understand correctly. You have one hardwater tank with rainbows, and another that you're using RO? Why not just stick with RO, add a tiny bit of tap water for trace minerals, and keep softwater fish?

I always prefer to keep fish that match my water. Changing the water chemistry to suit the fish becomes unsustainable for me long term. Maybe you're a lot more diligent than I am.

 

[Magnum Man]

I can't keep fish... ( well maybe brackish ) with the water in my area, so I'm prepared to blend my own water...

 

[GaryE]

pH up and down chemicals kill. All that matters is the mineral content. I have bred fish from a pH of 5 in what at 6.8, but only if the mineral content was very low (in those days, cut with rain, snow melt or RO).

 

[Magnum Man]

Actually I agree, I honestly think Ph is what it is, & most people worry too much about it... & your Kh & Gh are more important, but I'd at least like to nudge the Ph in the direction of hard or soft...

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Yeah, I think you'd be better off blending RO with your hard water and just trying to get the hardness right.

 

[seangee]

Short answer: Don't.
I use similar for my hot tub. This has a different water source to my main home where the fish are and the water is extremely soft. The pH up does indeed increase the KH but it also shoots the pH off the scale to acheive the desired hardness. Turns out the main ingredient is sodium carbonate. Then you add pH down to get the pH back down to an acceptable level. This only contains an acid. Dropping the pH exhausts some of the KH so when you get the pH right you need to add a bit more pH up, and then more pH down till you get it just right. You cannot do it with just the one chemical, and it involves a good deal of trial and error.
Once I realised this I simply used sodium bicarbonate from the supermarket (plain old baking soda). This raises the KH without sending the pH through the roof. Then I use a tiny amount of pH up to get the pH up. A lot of work and probably acceptable to hot tub owners. But you don't want to be chucking sodium into your fish tanks / ponds or playing trial and error games every water change.

 

[Colin_T]

The link for pH down contains citric acid. It will drop the pH but so will vinegar and that is cheaper.

Not sure what is in the pH up but it goes on about chemotherapy and not for use on food fish. So no you can't use that one because you are farming food fish.

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Most rainbowfish like water with a GH around 150-250ppm but are also happy in much harder water with a GH around 300-400ppm. Some are found in softer water with a GH below 100pp. I had my tanks at 200ppm. In your case I would use some tap water that hasn't gone through the water softener and some R/O water to get a GH around 200-250ppm and let the pH be whatever. It will be above 7.0 and I would let it be for the rainbows.

For soft water fishes I would use mainly R/O with a little bit of tap water that hasn't gone through the softener to get water with a GH between 50-100ppm.

The pH will drop when the KH has dropped enough and when there is sufficient fish waste to create enough nitric acid to drop the pH. Until then I wouldn't worry too much about the pH unless you are keeping wild caught fishes.

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Most driftwood normally stops releasing tannins after a period of time. It might take a few weeks, months or years but if your wood has stopped releasing tannins then it is fine. This has nothing to do with pH, GH or KH. The wood simply stops releasing tannins whenever it stops.

Peat won't do anything in hard water except make it brown from tannins. In soft water it can drop the pH but you need the KH below 50ppm for it to work.

 

[Byron]

As others have noted, these chemicals are not only useless long-term, they are seriously dangerous for the aquatic inhabitants. The pH is closely tied to the GH and KH, and other factors such as CO2 also impact it.

Wood is rarely effective, as it takes a lot of wood to achieve anything. Dried leaves work faster. But again, this all depends upon the GH and KH.