Best way to lower Ph in the tank

Hey all,
I have a 29 gallon tank that has been set up for ~ 10 months now. My tap water is ph of 7.0.
Nitrates are 20-40
Nitrites - 0
Ammonia - 0
I don't have a liquid gh/kh test kit, but on my g/f's dip sticks it says the water is hard-very hard.
My ph seems to be increasing over the last few months. It went from 7.4 to 7.6 to 7.8 and my last test is reading 8.0. I know there are many choices here, such as peat in the filter, the ph tablets, etc.
I was wondering if maybe a water softener pillow in a rena filstar xp2 and some pwc's would take care of the problem? I'd rather not mess with chemicals, but i'm worried about my fish because I know tetras, cories, and pleco's don't care for ph 8.0 +. Does the peat fiber or peat pellets you can buy for the fluval's work to lower the ph? What are my options here? I have plently of space left in my canister filter to lower it. I do pwc's every week. I even have a small piece of driftwood in my tank. What could be the culprit thats raising my PH and what should i put in my filter/do to lower it?
Do i add something like peat, etc, use the chemicals, or start out by trying a water softener? I know tetras and such do better in softer water. We even have a water softener in the house, so i'm not understanding why is is showing the water to be hard/very hard.
TIA
-Stewie

[pitt420dude]

Geeze i dont know stewie, that is tough. I am going to follow this post though because i need to know as well. I live in Pittsburgh so the water is very hard here too. (look on the bright side, its good for plants!). I have heard that driftwood will lower it over the long term.

I live about 60 miles north of you (grove city area). I've had the driftwood in the tank since day 1, so i'm assuming its not lowering it any, and if it is, then holy cow.. hopefully someone that has tried to lower it with success will be able to tell us.
-Stewie

[RoK]

Do you have some large rocks in there? Certain rocks raise the pH, I don't know too much about them though.

[SerLunchbox]

so LOTS of driftwood can help. but higher GH/KH really, in a way, puts a stop to pH lowering at a certain point
for example, my GH is 10.5 and KH is 9.5 and my pH has a lowest point of 7.5 with plants and driftwood.

Try peat and i beleicve i heard almond leaves also worked. then again with driftwood you really need a lot of it.

[Jchillin]

SerLunchbox is correct regarding the peat...it can help especially if you have driftwood.

Edit - here's a good article on the subject:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showqu...q=2&fldAuto=40

Thanks. And to answer your questions, i don't have large rocks in there. Just 2 clay pots and that driftwood. Anyone else use anything different?
-Stewie

One more thing.. just peat, peat fiber or the peat pelllets? or do they all work?
Thanks
-Stewie

[Jchillin]

One of the problems of lowering your ph is that once you get it to where you can be comfortable, you must maintain it to avoid rapid swings.

The article by Mark addresses this. I haven't heard of any other method and you certainly don't want to experiment at this point. Keep in mind that your gh and kh will change each time you do a PWC. You will have to monitor each to make sure that your buffering isn't affected.

Lots of Peat at this point.

[An t-iasg]

It would be helpful to get a liquid KH and GH test kit if you're having pH problems. To get an accurate pH reading, you have to let the water "age" or sit out for about 24 hours. Get some tap water and take a pH reading immediately, then let that glass of water sit out and then test the pH again. Then you'll know for sure if the pH is rising or falling as the water sits.

My tap pH falls after aging. It's 8.0 or 8.2 out of the tap, and 7.8 after aging. I then mix half tap and half RO water, and that gives me a pH of about 7.4. If I test the aquarium pH, it's 7.0 or 7.2.

I would also pour another glass of water. After letting it age, put some substrate in there, wait 24 hours, and test the pH again to see if the substrate is causing the pH to rise. If you can test the clay pot this way, do that -- you'll have to get something big enough to put it in with the aged water.

If the substrate or pot is causing your pH to rise, you could remove it. If that is not the reason that the pH is not rising, then you could try peat in the filter. If you can, put in a little bit at a time to lower the pH slowly. After the pH is where you want it, it will be easy to maintain. Just do the change gradually! If you have convenient access to RO water, you could do water changes with small amounts of RO water at first, mixed with your regular water, until the pH falls. Then you'll have to remember the proportions of tap to RO water that you mixed to keep up your water changes.

[Mazdaman]

regarding what sirluchbox said about gh and ph only going so low. My gh is right around the same if not THE same as yours. Does this mean that the lowest I could see my ph go with some "tinkering" would be 7.5.
my gh is between 10 and 11 so 10.5 a good estimate. My ph in my tank is around 7.6 or so. Would it really be worth anything to get the extra 0.1-0.2 drop?

[Jchillin]

Nope.

[SerLunchbox]

no ... what it means for my setup is that is how low it will naturally go ... you CAN use buffers to make it go lower but just my city water is unique and it only allows me so much flexability
yours may be different