Driftwood in the Aquarium and pH

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WaterBaby

Senior Member with Senior Moments
Sep 23, 2002
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Florence, New Jersey
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I bought a piece of grapevine wood at Petsmart about a week ago and have been soaking it in dechlorinated water for the past week to weigh it down. I have been changing the water daily.

I am concerned that when I put it into the tank, it will lower the pH too fast. The water out of my tap comes out 7.0. After one day with the grapevine soaking, it goes down to about 6.5 to 6.8. The water in my tank is on the high side 7.8. I know the fish in the tank prefer a more acidic environment, and putting this wood into the tank would lower the pH, but I don't want to kill my fish by shocking them overnight when I put it in.

I really want to put it in the tank, but don't know how to introduce it and not kill everything in there. What should I do?

Thanks,
Michele

20 Gal Long
pH 7.8
Ammonia, Nitrites 0
Nitrates 20ppm
4 Scissortails
3 Bloodfin Tetras
4 Fantail Danios
2 Lemon Tetras
 

daveedka

Purple is the color of Royalty
Jan 30, 2004
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Columbus, ohio
As said it will be fine, Driftwood lowers Kh fairly slowly, You may need to increase water change frequency for the first few weeks until the leaching effect goes away. A Ph much below 7.6 without co2 indicates a low Kh and will create a tank prone to crashes. If you have Ph of 7.8 in the tank, Your Kh is going to come in about 3 DKH which many of us consider the minimum allowable.

Unless you bucket is close to tank volume, it won't be a good indicator of how fast things will occur. Likewise the effect of most driftwood lowers with every water change so it should stabilize after a while and quit giving you Ph worries. I run large amounts of driftwood in most of my tanks, and after the first couple of weeks, I see little difference with or without it.

I know the fish in the tank prefer a more acidic environment,
did your fish tell you this ???
Fish cannot read Ph, soft water fish prefer a low level Of TDS's, and in the natural High water volume environment, this usually means a lower Ph in most cases. In our enclosed systems it is very hard to duplicate that same environment and remain stable. Basically unless you want to do daily high volume water changes you are better off acclimating your fish to tap norms, and not messing with a supposed ideal Ph. IME if your Ph is below 7.4 your Kh is too low for good stability (co2 injection tanks excluded of course). Fish adjust easily to A wide range of Ph levels, and most fish will adjust easily to a wide range of TDS levels.
dave
 
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