Suicidal Arowana

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travelinman1969

travelinman1969

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I started a post earlier and was asking about lowering ph. Here is the way it started.

I recently had to stop using my R/O and had it taken out of my house. It wasn't producing water fast enough. Was only getting about 10 gallons a day. I plan to get a new, bigger one in a couple of months. I am now having to use the tap water and the ph is way up there at about 7.8-8.0. I need to lower it. I'd like to get it around 6.8-7.2 for my arowana. Since the ph has come up he's not eating as much. A LFS guy said baking soda diluted in a water cahnge would help. Never heard of this. Will it help? I have a water softner. Should I bypass it or is the soft water okay? This is the first time I've ever used tap water in this tank, so excuse the duh factor.

ph 8.0
gh 65
kh 240


My arowana has always been in 6.8-7.2 ph. I had to get rid of my R/O because it couldn't keep up with the demand. I do 2-3 15% changes a week. It took the ph 3 weeks to get to this point but now seems to be iritating the heck out of him. He hsan't eatin in 5 days and he keeps banging the top of the tank. Granted, this is a 2 foot arowana folks. I got a bull goin nuts in a fish tank. HELP!!

arowana2.jpg
 
happychem

happychem

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As posted in other thread, just in case:

Get a new RO unit. For the volume of water that you're talking about, I don't think that any diy action will be very effective.

I'm not sure about tannins having any effect on KH. Tannic acid should lower pH, but I'm pretty sure that the conjugate base, what's left after the H+ leaves and lowers pH, would contribute to KH. The net effect should balance, like adding CO2, pH goes down, KH stays the same.

Like OG said, water softner won't help either. It's just an ion swap. I'm not even sure that it even affects carbonates. I think that it just works on the cations Calcium and Magnesium, but I'm not positive about this.

Also, is it possible to move him to a smaller tank temporarily, maybe you'd be able to do some water mods on a smaller volume, then when you get the bigger tank runnin' again with RO you could bring him back.
 
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NickH

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Call me crazy but wouldn't you have been better off reducing your water changes than putting your fish through PH shock?

10 gallons a day would have been good for 50 - 60 gallons a week. I don't know how large your tank is, but a weekly water change in this amount sounds like a better compromise than what you have done.

I would put the R/O unit back UNTIL you purchase that bigger one. If you had waited and done the R/O swap seamlessy to your fish I think you would have been in a much better situation. Beef up your filtration and go back to the R/O water with the solution you presently have. Maybe in 3 weeks your fish will start feeling better.

Oh and by the way, adding baking soda is a technique used to INCREASE the PH, not lower it! Adding peat to your filtration may lower your PH and soften the water, but it depends on you much water we're talking about (sounds like your tank is too big for this to be practical).
 
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travelinman1969

travelinman1969

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It's a 150 gallon. I have to do that many changes to keep up with the nitrates. The smaller R/O just wasn't practical and I'm not going to pay 20.00 a month for a system that can't keep up. I plan to get a new one in a couple of weeks but for the time being, I need to lower the ph.
 
happychem

happychem

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It may be possible to do so with hydrochloric acid. I think that some hardware stores sell it as "Muriatic acid". I think that you'd need pretty large amounts and you'd really want to pre-mix it with the water you were adding. It may be a half-decent stop-gap though.

In order to burn off the excess KH, you'll need a strong acid. A weak acid will have no net effect, although it may lower pH a bit.
 
terror

terror

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baking soda??

think baking soda will increase your ph real fast..??
also arowanas can live in ph of 8...
its better to let him live and get used to that ph than to keep on adjusting the ph... which might stress him more...

also be careful when lowering the ph.. since it might shock your arowana and be fatal if its lowered real fast...
 
travelinman1969

travelinman1969

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I want to bring it down slow. Arowanas like it around 6.8 to 7.2 and that's where it's always been, until the past few weeks. It didn't shock him per se. It was a gradual increase over 3 weeks. Man, he is tore up. :mad:
 
terror

terror

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acid..

Originally posted by travelinman1969
Anyone disagree with the hydrocloric acid? I'll give it a try unless someone can give me a good reason not to.
Click to expand...

gudluck with adjusting your ph...
but i heard that if your water is hard... even if you use hydrochloric acid..
it'll just return to a high ph after a while..
you have to have soft water 1st before adjusting ph...
 
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