our tap water: how to lower pH safely

[<haika@drizzle.com>]

I've got a couple fish that would probably spawn more readily if I could
figure out a way to bring down the pH safely. I've tried a number of
things that have helped, but I still rarely get the pH below 7.0. Most of
my tanks run at 7.4 - 7.6. My tap water is between 8.4 - 8.6 even after
letting it sit overnight. It's also very soft (both KH and GH).. I've
tried running it through one of those Aquarium Pharmaceuticals
deionization columns, but still....the lowest I can get it is 7.0. I've
tried running a bag of peat in my filter box...again, it's hard to get
anything below 7.0. What I need to do is take the deionized water and run
it through a peat filter before putting it in a tank. Haven't done that
yet. I'd like to bring the pH in some tanks down to 6.8 or so. If I get
some licorice gouramis...I need to be able to go lower than that. I
realize that I have very little buffering capacity in my tanks as is
(sigh).

Would RO water have a lower pH than DI water (all I'd be adding is the
Electro-Right stuff)? I haven't invested in a RO unit and would kinda like
to avoid that if I can get away with it. Would Discus buffer in DI water
be useful? I'm NOT a chemist! I'm stretching my chemistry capacity over
the nitrogenous waste cycle <G>. Maybe I can stretch my brain a bit, but I
need help. Would this be a useful club meeting talk? Or am I the only one
who is pH challenged <G>?

Betty Goetz


 ------------------
 To unsubscribe from this list, please send mail to majordomo@thekrib.com
 with "Unsubscribe gsas-member" in the body of the message.  Archives of
 this list can be found at http://lists.thekrib.com/gsas-member/