pH 7.8!!

C

Cichlid Woman

Dwarf cichlids rule ...
Nov 27, 2002
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Help.

I am going to ask a probably impossible question. I have a 38-gallon, planted community tank with tetras, cories, a clown loach, two clown plecos, two pairs of kribensis, a dwarf cinnamon guarami, a Congo tetra, and a Blue Ram. The tank has been set up for four months (I kept the gravel, filter media, and fish when I moved from a different location).

I just checked my pH and it's 7.8!! I did a partial water change over a week ago, so the 25% of new tap water has had time to settle down, and now the whole tank's reading a high pH. I did not realize it was that high. Ammonia is zero.

Question: Is there any safe, reliable, practical way to get my tank's pH to around 7.0 (or 6.8!) and stay there? I want to get a female Blue Ram for my male (who's been in my tank since before the move back in August), and I'd like them to be able to breed. In 7.8?!

I once tried Perfect pH and got substantial gray sludge on my filter, along with very cloudy water. Never again.

Is there something that I can do? This pH is too high for most of my fish, I think, and there's no chance of breeding with the Rams. Help?

Anxiously awaiting your expertise,

-- Pat
 
What is your ph out of the tap? Are rocks making ph climb? If not try search menu key words, (peat) and or (Driftwood)? I know people use peat to attain acidic conditions but you may have to experiment. Driftwood lowers ph also? What is opposite limestone?
 
Peat is the only stable and reliable method of lowering PH that I have tried. It browns the water something fierce.
You can try boiling the peat (fluval makes pellets), for 1 minute pour off the water and repeat. This removes a great deal of the brown, but not all, and the peat still works.
I put 1 cup in my canister as an experiment and it lowered the PH in my 20 gal to 7.5 within a few hours. Charcoal overnight seemed to remove almost all of the residual color. Replace boiled peat every 2 to 3 weeks.

BTW a ph of 7.8 is not that terrible. I have many 7.0 ph fish that do just fine in ph 8.0. If you want to breed, that may be another matter.

good luck
:)
 
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the problem with chemical Ph adjusters is that the Ph in your tank will "bounce" if you have a high Kh. You should test your Kh first if you wish to use chemicals.
 
Originally posted by O-man21
There is a product call PH DOWn that I used once, it worked very well
Click to expand...

Well yeah, maybe once. Did you maintain a tank with a lower ph for an extended period of time? How difficult was it? How big a tank?

Not to pick on you O-man, I note that you're a 'Senior Member'. If you were successful in using ph down I'd be curious under what circumstances because with a ph of 8+, I'd like to find some way to deal with it in a reasonable way.

Like I said, of the things I've tried, peat was the only one that didn't require me to be a chemist just to mix my water and watch my freaking ph/gh/kh levels like a newborn. And since I've only experimented with peat for a few months, I can't even truly yet say it is stable and convenient over the long term, but it seems to be.

good luck
:)

Think of an aquarium as a fish space station, and YOU are the ground crew.
 
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Originally posted by slipknottin
the problem with chemical Ph adjusters is that the Ph in your tank will "bounce" if you have a high Kh. You should test your Kh first if you wish to use chemicals.
Click to expand...

Took the words right out of my mouth...I have 7.8 water with a high kh (somewhere around 18 I believe) those pH buffers will work for a few hours, but then it rockets right back up again...A stable pH (even a high one) is better then a bouncing one. For the record, all of those fish are kept by people I know around me successfully...The only one that has been a bit of trouble is the Blue Rams...However, that breed has improved significantly (around me anyway) and the stock is much hardier then before. I know they are comming from Florida, so the fisheries must be improving the stock's hardiness...Hope this has helped
 
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