Lowering ph

[Candiceg]

I have a 75 gallon tank with 2 severums and 2 rams and a pleco.
Everyone is happily swimming and eating. But their colors are dull. I'm thinking it's because my ph is 7.6. I know its better to have a stable ph which it is but i feel like since its not ideal for them they are not thriving. I do have a piece of driftwood in there. Is there a way I can slowly lower it overtime?

 

[clearancepuppy]

Are you using tap water for pwc, and what is the ph of that?

I'm sure others will have loads of insight on this but meanwhile I found this advice (haven't tried it myself):

"That pH does sound pretty high. It's good that you haven't been using chemicals to lower it though. They cause fluctuations that can be very stressful to the fish and don't work long term in most cases. 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."

Lots of people here don't do the carbon.

Here is the rest of the reply:

"As your aquariums system ages the water will naturally become softer too. The organic wastes made by the fish will acidify it over time. Salt isn't going to hurt the fish or anything but it really isn't going to soften the water either. The minerals must be removed from the water to soften it and lower the pH. Salt works in water softener machines to "recharge" the resin on a regular basis. It's the recharged resin, not the salt, that softens the water." Quoted from another forum

 

[Candiceg]

Humm I dont use carbon either. I only use foam and bio balls in my filter. I will test my tap water when I go home. Am I right to think the high ph is whats making my fish dull? They are both types from boggy river areas. If I got peat pellets could I add a bag of them to my filter? Could I get some bog wood from a swampy area and clean it up? I don't want to use chemicals at all but I want to replicate their natural environment.

 

[Candiceg]

I just looked up creating a black water tank. And it had great ideas. I am going to add some dry oak leaves to the water first and slowly start introducing some peat moss in my filter overtime.

 

[clearancepuppy]

Keep researching and checking back here. Like I said, I don't have a lot of experience with having to reduce ph as mine stays around 7, and I don't know if the color thing is a ph problem or not. Maybe you could try them on a different diet.

Severum mama is your expert on those and samzter is your ram man on this forum. She is away this week but I'm sure samzter could answer this.

 

[Rivercats]

Rams show their best colors in tanks with dark substrate, softer or lower light, and preferably planted. I had to change my 10000K halide bulb to 6000K and the rams look so much better. Also if they are feeling stressed for any reason (other fish, not enough cover/hiding spots, and alot of other reasons) they won't show their colors. Can you post a pic of the tank?

 

[Candiceg]

Heres a pic

 

[Rivercats]

The tank is really open, as in hardly any plants. Those are fake right? Even adding more will help. Maybe you can find a big branchy piece of driftwood and even just tie some java moss on it to grow. The substrate is light which rams don't really like but if you put a bunch of dried oak leaves or Indian almond leaves on the bottom that will help alot as Rams naturally like to spawn in them. Plus those lights look really bright, maybe the white substrate adds to the brightness but something else you could do is add some type of floating plants. Water sprite would work really good. It will help cut the light down which will help. Just throwing out some ideas.

 

[aqua_chem]

There are many more significant factors than pH in color and general health. Most notably diet, but also TDS, KH/GH, and temperature.

 

[Candiceg]

Thanks the tank is definately a work in process. Temp is at 79 -80. I feed them nls pellets blood worms, shrimp, flakes,veggies. I'm going

 

[Candiceg]

I'm going to replace gravel with natural colored sand and I'm going to add more real plants. The real plants I have now wont stay in the gravel. I'm going to go look for some bog wood out in the woods an add some leaves. The lights I have are marineland single bright LEDs. So far both rams are happy and swim everywhere they aren't hiding.