Re: making water acid - UK

["Helen Burns" <helen.burns@bigwig.net>]

John,
Bio-Plast product 'Humik-Activ' is excellent.  A box costs approx. £5.  Add
this to the innards of an external filter or as I have done in the past,
fill a nylon bag with the granules and hang this on the outflow of the
filter.  You could fill an air-driven box filter.
Beech or Oak leaves also reduces the pH and added to the subsrtate is a very
pleasing sight and the dwarfs love it.
Collect rain water but I suppose in England you don't get the amount of rain
we get in Scotland.
Can't help you re outlets over the border as I'm up in Glasgow.  (I'd need
to get my road map out to see where the M25 is).
Helen

> What do UK apisto keepers use to make their water acid - apart from peat?
>
> I've tried asking for muriatic acid in places like Boots and just got
blank
> looks. Is it called something else in the UK or where is it generally
> available?
>
> I've tried peat - both garden centre and v. expensive Fluval aquarium
peat.
> Neither did much to pH considering the fuss involved. I now use Hagen pH
> Down - which claims to be sulphuric acid. This works but is also costly
> given £5 bottle lasts just a couple of months. If I build the house
> extension that will let me install a long dreamt about eight foot tank,
then
> adjusting the water will get very expensive! BTW, I use RO water cut to
> about 1 degree GH and KH yet still it takes hefty squirts of pH Down just
to
> shoot for a pH of 6.
>
> While I'm talking to UK posters, any tips about good fish shops in
Southern
> England? For apisto's the best range I've come across are at Ivy Mill
> Aquatics in Godstone. But I was there at the weekend and was rather
> disappointed - about six species and most looking somewhat frazzled. Are
> there any "don't miss" apisto suppliers within reach of the M25?
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> from John McCrone - Science Writer
>     mail to: j.mccrone@btinternet.com
>     web site: http://www.btinternet.com/~neuronaut/




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