Lowering Ph

[_Cal_]

I want to lower my ph, but how can I do it without using any sort of ph lowering chemicals? Like for example using limestone to rise the ph, keeping it stable, and recieving tht ph desired. But what are the methods for lowering ph

 

[guppymonkey]

First of all, why do you want to lower you pH? Is it over 8? Are you trying to keep species that need a low pH? Most fish are very adaptable to varying pH even if it is a little bit higher than what they would naturally live in. Unless you have an extremely high pH (somewhere above 8) or an extremely low pH (like around 6) there is absolutely no reason to change your pH unless you are trying to keep fish that need a specific pH like discus or african cichlids. Most of the time its actually much better to let your fish adapt to your regions natural pH. Any time you change the water it will go back to your natural pH anyways. Also the more chemicals you add to your tank the more pressure you are putting on your fish. Its almost like taking medication when you aren't sick, all it does is add stress. Anyone who tells you that your average community fish needs to have a certain pH is either misinformed or trying to sell you something. There are fish that need a specific pH but they generally are either wild caught or have specific needs like discus (who prefer soft water with a low pH) or african cichlids (who prefer hard water and a high pH) and even these fish can be adapted most of the time.

 

[TammyLiz]

Guppymonkey is right, it is better not to mess with your PH. However, as far as things that will lower it as limestone would raise it, you can use peat. It will stain your water like tea, though. Some people put it in their filters. If you have very hard alkaline water and want to breed south american cichlids, I would say this is your best bet. I used to live somewhere where my water was hard and alkaline, though, and I found that it was best to just keep fish that liked it that way. It is very difficult to keep it down and 'stable' is not something is probably not achievable if your water has a high buffering capacity (KH), since it will constantly be battling with the peat. I would say test your KH and if it is not too high go ahead and try it. With a high KH, though, you would probably be fighting a losing battle.

 

[chrismr]

Ok, to actually answer your question before lecturing there are a number of methods to lower your ph. There are some chemical additives which will lower your ph, but my experience is that they are no good for me because my tap water shoots back up to the normal ph within 24 hours. Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but water with a low kh should not do this.

Personally, I just use peat granules in my filter. I have used Eheim ehfitorf peat granules which will lower my water from ph 7.2 to about 6.5 in my 120 litre tank for about 2 weeks.

 

[rixy]

if you really want to lower your ph,bogwood is really good.but the main question is why do you want to lower it and by how much?

 

[_Cal_]

Reason is far from fish, and why the lecture? I want to lower it so its easier to get my co2 at the 30 ppm that I need. My kh is 4, and I have a of 7, if I lower, maintain the kh through my carbo plus, then I get the desired 30 ppm. There is no way to lower just .3-.5, and keep it stable? Im goign to take a look at peat.

 

[karlp]

As has been said before, adding peat / bog wood can help.

How effective it is can depend on how hard your water is. Hard water naturally has a buffer in to resist the ph being lowered. When I tried chemical additives to lower ph with very hard water, it tended to precipitate salts in the water and required a lot of additives.

I found it was easier to get a stable lower ph, if I mixed RO water with the tap water to soften it first, which reduced the buffer.

 

[langy]

What is deemed to be a high pH ?? When i added fish to my tank yesterday mine was approx 8.0 ? am i likely to have a few fish to remove when i get home ?

 

[annka5]

I was going to suggest RO water, as whilst peat works, it stains the water. This isn't great for plants as the darker stained water means that less light reaches the bottom of the tank.
Also it changes pH relatively little, and I found it hard to get the amount and the timing of replacing it tricky - spent a lot of time testing pH and worrying.

 

[zig]

Reason is far from fish, and why the lecture? I want to lower it so its easier to get my co2 at the 30 ppm that I need. My kh is 4, and I have a of 7, if I lower, maintain the kh through my carbo plus, then I get the desired 30 ppm. There is no way to lower just .3-.5, and keep it stable? Im goign to take a look at peat.

This is a classic misconception and will not work, Ph KH and CO2 levels all have a fixed relationship, if you alter any single variable the others will move along with it.

Basically if you lower your KH by what ever means your Ph will lower along side it, so when you go to take a measurement on a CO2 chart, yes the variables have shifted, but they have moved in conjunction with each other so the result will be the same.

The only way to higher your CO2 levels is to add more CO2

 

[dwarfgourami]

What is deemed to be a high pH ?? When i added fish to my tank yesterday mine was approx 8.0 ? am i likely to have a few fish to remove when i get home ?

Most fish are tankbred and can cope with quite high ph these days. Some actually prefer it (livebearers, East African cichlids). My ph is 8.4 and my fish are fine. The one to watch out for is the ammonia, thats the real killer.

 

[CFC]

The safest way to lower the pH in your tank is to use R/O water and adjust the KH and pH by adding trace elements to suit and then running the water through a peat filter.