Natural Ph Reduction?

[GrayScale]

So i've currently purchased some krib to. Start breeding and read that the ratio between male and female fry can be determined by the pH. I do have some driftwood in the tank and I do know that it most likely is the cause of my pH being around 7.4-7.6. Is there any other way to reduce the pH naturally by using something in a filter bag and put it in my filter? Or would the best course of action be taking some wood out and using something else for decoration?

Thanks!
GrayScale

 

[james_fish]

I would of expected the wood to of dropped it even lower than that to be honest? Maybe it was well soaked and left little or no tannings.

Anyway, 'peat slugs' or 'peat media' have worked a treat for me. Lowered the pH brilliantly. You can get bags of this on ebay. But it will slightly tint the water, but only a tiny bit.

James

 

[GrayScale]

Thanks for the input. Yea I bought the wood and it was aquarium ready cause they had it in there tanks at the lfs. I thought about peat just didn't know where I could get it from. I'll have a look for it. Is it something that could reduce the pH too much depending on the amount or would it be something that reduces it to a constant pH?

 

[Bignose]

You can probably find peat at a local hardware or gardening store. It is commonly used as a fertilizing/mulching agent. You just want to be sure it is pure peat, and nothing mixed with chemicals or the like. You can then use something like a stocking to suspend in the water or filter.

Peat is just about your most economical and easy choice. Another choice would be to buy RO water or buy your own RO unit.

A third choice would be to use CO2 injection.

pH is so temperamental because it is measuring such a small chance in concentration (i.e. a pH of 7.0 is a concentration of 0.0000001 moles/liter), that it is hard to control precisely. I write that not to say you shouldn't do it, but to have realistic expectations of what can and cannot be easily accomplished. A true pH control system would monitor the water flow with a pH meter and add acid or base as needed to regulate it, but the cost of that is going to be very high for an average fishkeeper. That kind of system is for university or commercial chemistry laboratories, typically.

 

[the biffster]

i used to boil peat the strain it
use the water you get from it if
you don't want to do that you could
use humaqat its by waterlife i used to use
this when breeding most of my acid loving
cichlids

 

[Carlovel1]

Peat gets a thumbs up from me

 

[GrayScale]

I'm just weary about adjusting the pH cause I don't want to send the fish on a roller coaster ride. but at the same time I don't want to have all male or all female fry since more people are willing to buy or take in pairs for breeding. I've actually thought of co2 injection since it's a planted tank but funds are limited at the moment with holidays coming up etc.

For boiling and straining the peat, is this something that should be done every water change or? Or for placing it in the filter, how often should it be changed out to keep a consistanT pH?

 

[the biffster]

I'm just weary about adjusting the pH cause I don't want to send the fish on a roller coaster ride. but at the same time I don't want to have all male or all female fry since more people are willing to buy or take in pairs for breeding. I've actually thought of co2 injection since it's a planted tank but funds are limited at the moment with holidays coming up etc.

For boiling and straining the peat, is this something that should be done every water change or? Or for placing it in the filter, how often should it be changed out to keep a consistanT pH?

if you have an external don't boil it
just add the peat to the filter in a
filter bag or a leg of a tight put peat
in tight make in to a a lose ball and place
in middle filter basket if you boil it
at it to the water every time you do a water change
mind you its a bit harder that way as you have to play with
it till you get the PH right over a few water changes
i think you will be better in the filter i would say
a good hand full in the filter

 

[Carlovel1]

Indian Almond Leaves

 

[jpeterson]

Indian Almond Leaves

Yup Also Oak Leaves.

 

[Squidward]

Thanks for the input. Yea I bought the wood and it was aquarium ready cause they had it in there tanks at the lfs. I thought about peat just didn't know where I could get it from. I'll have a look for it. Is it something that could reduce the pH too much depending on the amount or would it be something that reduces it to a constant pH?

Ph and water hardness are directly linked. So if your water is hard, it will be more difficult to shift the ph using other means. My water is hard, with a relatively high ph (KH = 15; PH = 7.8). I have loads of wood in my tank, and it hasn't shifted the ph at all.
In which case, your best option would be to add some RO water. This would make your overall water softer (depends on how much you add etc) and also easier to lower the ph. But you have to be careful with playing with ph as you can do more harm than good. It is better for the fish to have a stable higher ph, than one that is lower but constantly fluctuating.

 

[Bignose]

Ph and water hardness are directly linked.

yes and no.

Yes, in that in most natural situations, if you find water that is hard, it will has higher pH, and if you find water that is soft, it will have a low pH. And the reciprocals are true, too.

However, it is not impossible to have water with high pH and soft, or water with low pH and hard.

pH is a measure of the amount of H+ ions in the water.

Hardness is a measure of the amount of minerals in the water -- and specifically what kinds of minerals depends on which hardness you are talking about. Almost all the minerals are salts, and don't directly influence the amount of H+ in the water. Minerals typically means things like magnesium, calcium, sodium, silver, etc.

General hardness is a measure of all of these minerals, and is often abbreviated GH. Carbonate hardness is a measure of the minerals that are dissolved in the water's ability to act as a buffer. This takes the reactivity of the various minerals in the water, and represents it as a value of an equal amount of solely carbonate. It is often abbreviated KH, from the German spelling of carbonate.

The buffering of KH relates to pH, but I don't think that "directly" is a fair modifier. Because buffering is the amount the water resists changes to pH, not what the final pH itself is. Again, you have have water the has a very low pH, but if it has a high KH, it will resist changes to its pH because of the buffering agents.

"Indirectly" is probably the best modifier, because the individual values of pH and KH can be independent of one another, the amount of KH affects how much acid or base it will take to result in a change in pH.

 

[ghent_3rd]

This really helped me out as I am looking to keep Apistos, tetra and corys in a 95 litre. I am hoping to get the pH down a little as it sits at about 7.1, not unheard of to keep these fish in this style of water I know, but I would like to optimize conditions. HOw much peat would be best to add to 95 litre of water to get it down to suitable levels??

 

[GrayScale]

This really helped me out as I am looking to keep Apistos, tetra and corys in a 95 litre. I am hoping to get the pH down a little as it sits at about 7.1, not unheard of to keep these fish in this style of water I know, but I would like to optimize conditions. HOw much peat would be best to add to 95 litre of water to get it down to suitable levels??

After further reading its all dependant on the buffering capacity of your water. I actually just set up my Co2 system so it reduced my pH quite nicely. I think the best way to do this is to just pack a filter bag with one of the things listed above and pop it in your filter and from there its just trial and error to the amount needed to keep it stable at the pH you want.

 

[Florin Andrei]

In my aquarium I just installed a piece of wood I bought at the LFS. Not sure if it's "bogwood" or just regular wood, but in any case it lowered the pH.

But now I've a question of my own: Should I expect a steep lowering of the pH for a long time? Or does the effect slow down in time? I'd expect the wood to leak the acid stuff at first, and then the effect should flatten out. But this is the first time I'm trying it, so... any ideas?

If it keeps reducing the pH a lot for a long time, I'll have to use a smaller piece, maybe cut the original one and just use 1/3 or 1/4 of the whole thing, and keep the rest on a shelf. As it is now, the effect is pretty strong, so I'll have to compensate with 25% water changes every few days.