How to make water less alkaline??

[snowyangel]

I have an all around tester kit, tests for everything. Ammonia zero, nitrite 0, nitrate around 40 ppm, ph 7.2, u name it its all in safe ranges, but my alkalinity is high. Excuse me if I sound dumb here, but alkalinity is related to water hardness right? If so, our water is very hard here so i know water changes wouldn't help much. Any solutions or products?

 

[jaywings19]

From what I understand, any water whose pH level is above neutral (7.0) is considered alkaline. Though, I have heard people on this board relate it to high pH and hardness.

 

[kmurph]

I don't think that a ph of 7.2 seems all that high to me, ESP if you are using water coming out of the tap, and seeing as you are in Ontario, I wouldn't expect the ph to be much lower. Municipal water tends to be on the alkaline side as well as a bit hard. I really wouldn't consider this to be a problem as most aquarium fish are already adjusted to that type of water. As far as any products, I just don't see the worth unless you have fish that require very specific conditions ( ie: discus). Otherwise I wouldn't bother with it too much, you may end up causing ph fluctuations which is worse for the fish in the long run.

Unless I am totally whacked ... it's happened before.

 

[Bol]

I'm pretty sure the following is correct, but not absolutely sure.

The "total alkalinity" that some test kits test is what is also called "General Hardness" or GH. It is, in fact, a measure of salts in your water (mainly calcium and magnesium?).

You mention your alkalinity is high, how high is it?

 

[noop]

a pH of 7.2 is very weakly alkaline (7.0 is neutral)

if you want to reduce it, either remove certain things from your tank (eg sand, coral), or add certain things to it (eg bogwood, peat filter media)

 

[smileandnod]

You only need to worry about this if you are keeping fish which require soft water.
Alkalinity is actually a measure of the hardness of the water, not it's PH.

Usually it is refered to as kH, and is the buffering capacity of the water. ie it's ability to remain at a constant PH, and absorb acids. With zero kH your PH would be all over the place.

Unless you intend keeping Discus, or certain types of cichlid, (maybe others) I really wouldn't worry about it. My own kH is 18 degrees from the tap, and my fish seem to thrive in it.

If you do want to lower it, the simplest solution is to use RO water.
There is a very informative atrice here about water chemistry. It's a bit of a black art, but not impossible.

http/www.drhelm.com/aquarium/chemistry.html

Cheers.

Ian.