lowering PH

[optix]

Any suggestions, I have heard of putting peat moss in your filter. Is this a good suggestion??

[wetmanNY]

I don't know if this hyperlink will work. Its the result of a search (button in the upper right corner of this page) for

peat AND *filter*

cut and paste this so you get it with the asterisks and AND

here's the link to 33 threads on peat filtration:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/search.php?action=showresults&searchid=26190&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

[scott]

What is your ph now? What fish are you keeping? Why do you want to lower it? Most fish are bred in neutral water so a ph close to seven is acceptable even if that is not what the fish incures in the wild.

[optix]

haha, I have 2 convicts, a jack dempsey and an oscar and the ph is a rediculous 8.3, I haven't got my hardness test kit yet, but will be soon. I want to breed the convicts in a 29 gallon

[125gJoe]

http://gordon.sourcecod.com/images/flagicons/american_flag.gif
Peat will help.... :)

[Richer]

2 convicts... a jack depsey.. and an oscar... I hope they are in seperate tanks of appropriate size =)

Peat may or may not work for you... I tried peat filtration once, and it didn't work for me. All it did was turn my water brown. I believe it only makes a good impact if your water is not overly hard... my water is hard, so that would probably explain it. Another thing you can also try is putting in a fair sized piece of driftwood into your tanks. It essentially gives you the same effect as peat.

HTH
-Richer

[ChilDawg]

Well, at least two of those fish will THRIVE in pH of 8.3, and I wouldn't worry too much about the Oscar, either, unless it was wild-caught. As long as you acclimated them to your water, they'll be fine in it and not die from alkalosis.

[wetmanNY]

The very first Oscar seen-- in 1840-- had washed so far out at the mouth of the Amazon, they thoughtat first it was a marine fish.

Not a tale to justify salting the water, just an idea of how hardy Oscars are...

[optix]

Thats awesome about the oscar, very good news, I have my jack and oscar in a 125 alone for now, and the convicts are in a 29 gallon, both tanks show a ph of 8.3. I have a piece of driftwood in both tanks. Still a high ph.

[scott]

Have you tried RO water? Maybe do a fifty percent change with RO water and then wait a day and do another one. I don't know if that would eat up the buffer or not in a PH like that but then maybe if it drops your pH you could do mixed water changes with RO and tap. Or you could just keep Africans.

[Richer]

Your fish are quite hardy and should do fine in your water. Your convicts will breed in any condition (within reason). Just give them room, a pot (or cave of some sort), make sure one is a male and the other is a female, and before you know it, you'll have fry swimming around.

I've kept every types of fish in my water (pH usually hovering around 8, kh around 7-9) and they've thrived. I've even had some tetras spawn in a couple of my tanks.

*edit*
I should probably add. Don't use 100% RO water in your tanks if you decide to go that route. Always mix it with your tap water. Keep in mind a kh of around 3-4 should be able to keep the pH of a tank stable, so you want the water going into your tank to be around that.

-Richer