How do I get my ph to come down?

[Dare On]

I had my water tested at my local fish place and he told me that my ph was rather high. I think he said around 8.5 ( not 100% sure ). What can I do to make it come down. I asked the dealer about chemicals to add and he told me that with a 90 gallon tank that I have I would be spending a fortune on chemicals just to get it t o come down. He told me to add marine salt ( I have a freshwater tank ). Is this what I should be doing or should I be doing something else? Forgive me as I am sort of new to this but how did it get to be so high in the first place? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[tstenback]

What is the pH of your tap water? If your fish are ok then why bring it down at all. If you have to bring it down a couple of ways are to add bogwood to your tank this will bring it down a few points over time. Also you could add peat to the filter which will have the same effect. HTH

 

[Dare On]

I am fishless right now. I had a clown knife for 5 years and he finally got just too big. My dealer had a silver arowana and I was interested in getting him but I wanted to test my water with my dealer first. It was then that he told me that my ph was rather high. BTW what is bogwood? Is that like driftwood? If it is I have a big piece in my tank already. Not sure what the ph of my tapwater is. Should I be adding this marine salt to my water?

 

[Alan Roche]

I don't think you'd have a problem using 'PH DOWN'. It's highly concentrate and I don't think it would cost you a forture to maintain correct ph levels using it. Try it! Buy from any good supplier.

 

[noelberg]

if you only have 1 piece in a 90 gallon, then your pH won't go down much. I personally don't like chemicals unless they're absolutely necessary. That's a great pH for some fish, but definitely not wild caught cardinals or that type that love low pH. I would try another piece of driftwood and/or some peat moss in the filter if you really want to get the pH down. Otherwise get some sort of water purifier system or RO system.

And you also don't want an Arowanna if the knife got too big for you! You're looking at a 300 gallon tank fish there bro.

HTH and GL

 

[Tropjunky]

well a CO2 system might help and it's good 4 ur plants

 

[NEON98101]

Humm nobody answer the marine salt part. Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought any kind of salt would bring up the ph.

 

[noelberg]

If it's pure NaCl salt, then it really won't do anything to the water other than make it saline. That comes from my dad who taught chemistry for 30+ years

Some salts will raise your pH however. Gotta read the package. But salt is definitely not the answer to change pH.

 

[Dare On]

Thanks for all the info. So peat moss and/or more driftwood will do the trick. The salt my dealer gave me was just in a small clear plastic sandwich bag. He said he got them cheap, I have no idea what brand of salt it actually is. I am also getting a little conflicting info on this arowana. My dealer told me I could keep a silver arowana his entire life in my 90 gallon tank.
Anyway, I bought a ph tester and did some testing. Ph of tapwater is about 7.4, ph of 90 gallon tank is about 8.0 and ph of my feeder fish tank is about 8.4.