Trouble lowering PH

K

Kelbel

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Mar 9, 2003
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I just set up a 10g tank, and initially used my tap water. The Ph was at around 9 so I purchased PH decreaser and treated the tank several times with it, but the PH never lowered at all. At that point I assumed that maybe my water was too hard, thus preventing me from lowering it. I did a 25% water change with water that I purchased from Raab water (as suggested by the petstore) and added PH decreaser. Still no change. This was almost a week ago. Today I did a 50% water change with the bottled water from Raab (again as suggested by the petstore), and added a product that they suggested called Neutral Regulator made by Seachem. (it is a white powder). It is supposed to adjust high or low PH to 7.0. Several hours afterward I tested the water again, and I still have seen no change. HELP......I don't know what else to do. I had already purchased 3 tiger barbs, the petstore said it would be o.k. as long as I did a water change with the soft water in a day or two, well as of today I have now lost one barb, and I think that I might lose another one of them before two long if I don't get the PH down in my tank. HELP!!!

Thanks ~ Kelbel
 
changing pH is a real pain. with a 10 gallon I'd suggest you not try, and see if the fish will adjust to the higher pH.

A more important issue is wether you have 'cycled' the tank yet. If you haven't bought the fish yet, you should consider a fishess cycle, look up 'fishless cycle' on this board and do some reading.

There are only 3 reasonable methods of lowering pH that I've tried. Injecting co2, which with a 10 gallon might be very easy with DIY, with peat moss and with reverse osmosis.

Give us some more details on your tank and water parameters and I bet we can coach you through your new tank!

good luck
:)
 
Another option would be to get reverse osmosis water. A mixture of your tap water and the RO should lower the pH quite a bit. For a mslal system like a 10, purchasing RO water (walmart sells it in gallon jugs) shouldn't be too expensive.

I agree--cycling the tank before purchasing more fish would be a good idea. Learn about the nitrogen cycle--it will prevent some serious problems later. The pH adjusting chemicals likely contain loads of phosphates...The best way to introduce a stunning growth of algae.
 
Thanks for the quick responses! And for offering to help coach me through this. I have read up on the nitrogen cycle and have a much better understanding of it now. The only test kit I have currently is a PH test kit. Tomorrow I will go to the petstore and purchase a kit that can give me all the readings that I need. I will post what I come up with and go from there. I suppose since I have already have 2 tiger barbs left in the tank, a fishless cylce is out of the question, so any suggestions on how to cycle with the fish and from the point that I am at now would be very helpful. Another thing that I wanted to ask was how often should I be doing a water change and how much should I be changing? You all are a blessing! Thanks so much for your help!!

Kelbel
 
Well, with fish in the tank you can't do a fishless cycle. I suggest a 20 - 40% water change every 2 or 3 days until you can check ammonia and nitrIte levels. Once the tank is cycled, 20% once a week is good.
If you can get wet gravel from the fish store or a friends fish tank, you will greatly increase the speed of your cycling process, just toss it in.
good luck
:)
 
Fill a bucket with your untreated tapwater and run an aerator in it for 48 hours. Give us the pH at the end of 48 hours.

A pH of 9 is a hint that your water utility treats the water with slaked lime, calcium oxide CaO.

Your high pH may well be related to the depletion of CO2 in your water, because of the lime.
 
You know I hadnt thought about it till the last post, but when I first set up my tank I had a corner filter that the tank came with and after a few days bought a better over the back filter. Anyway when I took the corner filter out it was covered with a soft white dust (like lime). Since then I have been buying the bottled water.
I tested my water today. The Ammonia was 0, the Nitrite was 0, and the PH was still at 9. With the two being at 0, does that mean that my tank has completed it's cycle?
And I will do that with the tapwater for the next 48 hours.
Thanks for all the help!

~Kelbel~
 
Wetman,

Soooo, if your water co uses lime in your water, what do you do? RO?

And I still can't get your web page up. The navigation bar on the left just says <-- Folder,Item and Root Images -->.

I use win xp pro and ie6. It's like your nav.html has changed tags or is mispointed. Can you help with a clue?

thanks
:)
 
famman, the calcium hydroxide, or slaked lime, added to the water has depleted it of carbon dioxide. CO2 diffuses in from the atmosphere as the water sits out, being aerated. At first, all that extra calcium in the water tends to combine with the CO2 to form carbonate/bicarbonate. But eventually the pH drops into normal ranges in the 7s.

Some water treatment plants, concerned to soften hard water rather than concerned to avoid pipe corrosion, as this Providence utility is, then add caustic soda ash (sodium carbonate— Na2CO3) to precipitate the calcium.


The process could be speeded with a yeast bottle of do-it-yourself carbon dioxide, I think.

(famman, I'm sorry about the trouble you're having opening the java applet that runs the menu at www.skepticalaquarist.com . My tech partner is telling me what to suggest. I'll email you.)
 
Not to highjack, but The Skeptical Aquarist has been working OK for me, with WinXP and IE6. I tried shortly after famman posted and every so often since then, and it's worked flawlessly.

Famman, any chance something has bollixed up your Java? Try reinstalling it maybe?

Jim
 
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