Bogwood and ph

[colematthewmalaka]

Hi, i have a 30 gallon Ram cichlid tank and i wand the ph to be between 6 and 7 right now it's 7.6. Would bogwood lower the ph and if so how much should i put in? thx

 

[SWerner13]

Hi, I have read a couple of your posts about trying to bread rams and all that and have been following them because I would also like to breed rams in the near future. that being said i decided to do a bit of research on lowering the ph. It seems unfortunately for you and eventually for me ( mine stays around 7.7) that this is a difficult task.

I this on this site:

You can add driftwood or bogwood to your tank soften the water instead. What some hobbyists do is use "peat water". Add some peat pellets, available in fish stores, to a pot of water (Not aluminum). Bring the water to a boil and then put the "tea" with the peat into a brand new clean plastic garbage bin full of water. Keep it covered and full all the time. The peat will acidify the water slowly. Use partly peat water and partly tap water to refill your tank for water changes. You will need to test the pH and hardness of the peat water to decide how much to use at a time. Peat may color the water brownish or yellowish. Fresh carbon in the filter will help.

It seems peat may be something worth looking into. Also look into filtering over peat moss.

I also found this:

Lowering the pH is a more extensive task. If you simply add a product such as “pH Down” this will not work. Your buffering system will simply very quickly raise the pH back to its original state. You must remove the buffering ions from your tap water so that you may lower the pH. The best way to accomplish this is to purchase a Tap Water Purifier unit. These units filter the water from your faucet using an ion exchange resin. The resulting water is free of the salts and minerals which buffer your water. Aquarium Pharmaceuticals makes a nice compact Tap Water Purifier specifically designed for aquarium use. This is the only reliable method I know of to reduce the buffering ability of your aquarium water and to lower pH. Without purified water, you may be able to lower your pH for a day or two, but without first removing the buffering ions your pH will climb again to natural levels. This fluctuation in pH is much worse than having the wrong pH to begin with. As an additional option, I should mention that many hobbyists use peat to soften their water. By running peat in your power filter, or by placing a layer of peat under your gravel, you will soften your water. This technique can work well, but is more complicated, less predictable, and probably best avoided by the inexperienced hobbyist.

This gives another brief description. All in all it would seem that you are in for quite a bit of extra work to safely maintain a lower ph and it is going require a good amount of research.

Adding CO2 to your tank will also help to lower your CO2

In conclusion:
It seems your three safest options are,
1. add CO2
2. adding peat water or filtering over peat moss
3. Using bogwood

It seems that whichever method you eventually choose, make sure to do it very slowly and monitor your ph. I can't find an exact science so small amounts untill you reach your desired ph. Good luck my friend keep us posted!!

 

[colematthewmalaka]

I have well water so i'm not sure we have a buffering system. I do have a reverse osmosis system too. I did a PH test on it and it's the same. Also my wells PH changes i've found it at 8.1 before so it's weird.

 

[SWerner13]

I dunno I think the safest method seems to be slowly add some bogwood and test it.

 

[colematthewmalaka]

Okay, i've heard that ph and carbonate hardness aren't really important when breeding rams but i've also heard it's mandatory to have it right. So i don't know what to do.

 

[SWerner13]

I dunno man I haven't looked into yet I'm waiting till this summer when I have time to set up my 36 gallon tank.

 

[colematthewmalaka]

Oh i just got mine set up