Re: our tap water: how to lower pH safely

[<haika@drizzle.com>]

>From what I've read (no personal experience), some of these species which
have adapted to soft/acid waters might live fine as adults in water with
higher pH/more hardness, but spawning/rearing fry in 'abnormal' conditons
is problematic. Isn't egg fungus a big problem in many species (like
Apistogrammas) spawned at higher pH?

I bought some discus buffer. But I'm kinda freaked about using chemicals
in my tanks (sigh). I guess I'm not so freaked about peat since it just
seems more natural. But I've still had problems getting my pH down to
where I'd like it to be for some species. Thank goodness for Endler's
livebearers, which seem to like that higher pH <G> and I can create the
hardness easily enough with crushed coral. But I want to go the other
way....maintain the softness and lower the pH of my tap water. I'm not
saying I'm rational about this <G>.

Betty Goetz
Bothell, WA

> Hey, I'd love a pH talk too... Particularly since just
> about everything on the web is about lowering hardness
> (which most people seem to confuse with high pH).
>
> I'm probably one of the few people here who does not
> do a lot with plants, so I do use phosphate buffers,
> that *usually* works since we do have such soft water.
> Keeps it at a nice, stable 7.
>
> Part of the problem that I mentioned off list (I lost
> a bunch of delicate low pH  fish after a water change)
> was partially due to the fact that I had convinced
> myself that the phosphate buffers were "bad" and I
>should slowly discontinue using them.  That and the pH
> that day I'm quite certain was higher than normal.
> Needless to say I am using them again...
>
> Other than those, I also occasionally use indan almond
> leaves, or a little bit of Seachem acid buffer if it's
> really bad.
>
> One of the things that Yohan Fernando had mentioned
> when he did his wild betta talk here was that he had
> acclimated all of his fish to his water in Chicago,
> and they all spawned for him in that water. The only
> exception was one specie which he said the eggs
> calcified, but with our soft water that seems
> unlikely.
>
> The idea being that stable pH is more important that
> the "right" pH.
>
>
> --- haika@drizzle.com wrote:
>> 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
>>
>>
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>
>
>
>
>
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