Indian Almond & Alder Cones

[Optimus]

In short I'm looking for a recommended dosage/use. I have 20 IAL (8") and 30 alder cones. My aim is to lower the ph. While I realize that my kh might prevent the leaves and cones from affecting my ph I don't want to cause to far a drop if it does have an affect.

I'm open to using both at the same time but would stick to either/or if recommended. My ph hovers around 7.5-8ppm My tank is a 50 gal and I'm looking for a drop of -1ppm

 

[TwoTankAmin]

PH is not a ppm measure. Its is actually a log scale for hydrogen. But that is not the question. I use both catappas and alders as well as rooibos tea in my altum tanks. There are several effects these things can have on your water. The biggest you will notice is the staining.

The alder cones need to used carefully as they tend to be quite intense in terms of staining. Catappas are good as well and will release all sorts of beneficial things into the water. Both these things release lots of tannins and will effect pH- they will soften the water and help to lower the pH. The roobos tea will not effect the pH nor add any tannins. However,it will color the water another way and it will release all the beneficial goodies.

There is no formula for how many cones or leaves may be needed. There are too many variables. You are correct about the KH being an issue. I tend to lower the pH in the altum tanks using the addition of ro/di water to bother reduce the overall KH as well as to lower the TDS combined with dosing muriatic acid. But I also use a pH meter to be sure of what I am doing.

You may get better and more controlled results if you make your own peat extract. That way you would be more able to control what "dosages" work for you. One of the biggest issue in lowering one's pH is being sure that water changes will not bounce it around too much. To minimize this I pre-treat my changing water so it has the parameters desired before it gets put into the tank.

One other route you may want to consider to lower your pH is to use a buffer. You can get an idea about a lot of whats available here http://www.kensfish.com/ph-buffers.html

Seachem has information on theirs here http://www.picosearch.com/cgi-bin/ts.pl?index=403868&query=buffers&SEARCH.x=0&SEARCH.y=0

Lastly, altering tank chemistry can be a slippery slope. it is often not quite so simple as "dose so much of this" and its done. So unless you have an absolute need to change your pH, I would be inclined to leave it alone.

 

[Optimus]

Twotankamin

Thanks a humongous bunch for that info. I use ppm because of the test kit I use (nutrafin) measures the ph in ppm. I have never heard about the tea but will look into it. Until recently I have never been interested with tinkering with ph but I have a rotpunkt who just wont breed despite the females practically laying eggs in front of him. I haven't added any chemical to my tank for years (except dechlor) which is why I chose the natural approach instead of the chemicals. Plus I think they tend to have more of an instant impact as opposed to the leaves/cones.

I was hoping for a recommended leaf per liter/gallon to gain the 1ppm drop. Or at least a starting point because until now, I've never attempted adjust my water parameters.

 

[Optimus]

Update

I soaked 5 alder cones and 5 IAL in a shallow bowl for 6hours. Did a 50% water change and added the cones and ial to the aquarium. More importantly, I did a couple ph tests. The first on my tap the water the second on the water that had been used to soak ial and cones.



The tap water is 7.5ppm - Ial water dropped to 7ppm. I'm not sure what that means, not sure if it'll create a huge drop. So any advice as on what to do next is appreciated because I'm pretty much working blind...

 

[Star_Rider]

try a larger amount of water and see what happens.
very sage advice from TTA

but unfortunately you have to deal with your tank and parameters any results I get would be different. I too raise Altum and use RO/DI to help balance the parameters. my tap is low TDS with kh of 30-4 and gh 7-9.

as you may guess my tap is already slightly acidic at pH 6.6-6.8 from the tap.

so results vary..like TTA I pretreat the watrer prior to adding to the tank.