Lowering ph

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55gls

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Oct 15, 2013
Messages
32
Location
Long Island ny
Read on one of the treads that you can use oak leaves in your tank to lower the ph level due to the acid in the leaves.
This would be great for me as I have many oak trees in my yard and there all dropping there leaves now.
My tap water has a very high ph.
My question . Is it safe, and would just floating a few leaves in a 55 work?

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How high is very high coming from your tap? Although Oak Leaves, or other things may help, only to a degree, whats your KH and GH? and other test reading in the tank? If you have very hard water, the harder it will be to bring down the PH.
 
How high is very high coming from your tap? Although Oak Leaves, or other things may help, only to a degree, whats your KH and GH? and other test reading in the tank? If you have very hard water, the harder it will be to bring down the PH.

What they said+
I have hard tap water, I've used an RO/DI unit for years, it gives me perfect control on freshwater. You can re-mineralise with de-chlorinated tap water or special salt though I've never used that in freshwater. The benefit is you can make any spec water to keep virtually any aquatic animal. The downside is changing the filters etc. and plumbing it in maybe a concern.
 
I had my tap water tested at my local aquarium shop I was told it was hard water high ph
When I tested it at home myself it's dark blue on API chart
I've been using bottled water for water changes but that's getting exspensive.
Just bought a ceramic filter and set up a gravity filter so I'm curious to check the ph on the filtered water tonight.
 
Yes the rocks are no longer in the tank that was when it was first set up I took them out they were causing the ph to go up only thing in there is driftwood and live plants
 
Something that should be mentioned is that using leaves to lower pH also releases tannins into the tank, significantly tinting your water. The more you need to lower your pH, the darker it gets.


Do you need to lower your pH for a particular reason?
 
Thanks the info on the leaves tinting the water I diffentlly don't want that!
I'm trying to lower the ph in my tap water which is hard and high ph so when I do water changes I don't have to add ph down as not to stress the fish out.
Is this not so important?
 
Most commercially available fish can adapt to nearly any pH level as long as it's steady. If you have wild caught species or particularly sensitive ones you may need to alter your pH. Keep in mind pH swings will do more harm than a consistent level. How long has your tank been set up? Have you noticed any health problems in any of your fish? Any new additions?
 
A high pH isn't normally a problem for most fish, like stated above. The important thing is that it stays consistent. Adding chemicals to change it generally is not advised, although I don't think the leaves could hurt. Unless of course you don't want your water to turn brown.
I have heard they have many benefits including antibacterial properties though :)
 
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