pH Won't go Down!

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humdedum

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Feb 17, 2009
Messages
37
Location
Ontario
Hi!

I have a 20-long with six fish each about an inch long - platy, swordtail, danio (lost the other five to fish TB), two angelfish, and a female guppy.

The pH has been high, like 7.8, and the alkalinity is off the test strip scale. Our water softener is terrible, it has zero hardness and high pH, and our outdoor water is hard, high pH, and spring water from the store is about the same.

pH Down won't work, I can't find peat moss.

Please help me!

~Humdedum
 
Perhaps dilute HCl? AND I MEAN DILUTE! And that will only bring it down temporarily... Sounds like the tank needs a good clean. The water to start with is alkaline so you need to start with as clean a platform as possible. 7.8 isnt horrible. Mine is 7.6.
 
7.8 isn't that high for most community fish. I've even kept discus and apistogramma in 7.8. If it's stable, I'd say don't try to change it. Stability is more important than a "perfect" number. Good luck! :)
 
I agree with not messing with the pH! 7.8 is really not that bad & is perfectly fine for your fish. Trying to adjust that will only cause pH swings & more problem.

<FYI - the only way you can change your pH reliably is to use a deionizing/reverse osmosis unit & add a neutual buffer to the R/O water. But as I said before, you don't need to do it!>
 
As already stated, you don't have to adjust your pH. However, if you were interested in how you would lower the pH, you would most definitely need to lower your KH, which is keeping your pH in the alkaline range. KH measures the buffering capacity of the tank, which is the resistance to pH swings. The more buffering capacity the more acid can be added with no effect.

One of the best ways to get your KH where it needs to be before you start messing with the pH is to mix purified water with your tap water. The purified water can be reverse osmosis (RO), deionized, distilled, spring water with a low GH and KH, etc. I'd let the pH stay where it is if I were you. It's not going to hurt anything at all sitting at 7.8
 
I must warn against lowering your pH. Its only worth it if you are trying to breed species that are picky on pH. Ive got a pH of 6.6 right now but I have to keep adding a small amount of buffer regularly to prevent my alkalinity from bottoming out as it would if left unchecked. Its meticulous at times and can be a deadly game. Unless your trying to breed some tough species its best to leave it be. My other tanks sit at a 7.9 and all my fish are happy as can be.
 
One of the best ways to get your KH where it needs to be before you start messing with the pH is to mix purified water with your tap water. The purified water can be reverse osmosis (RO), deionized, distilled, spring water with a low GH and KH, etc. I'd let the pH stay where it is if I were you. It's not going to hurt anything at all sitting at 7.8


The spring water from our grocery store apparently has high pH too, because when we tried WCing with it, it was still high.
 
The spring water from our grocery store apparently has high pH too, because when we tried WCing with it, it was still high.

But it will have a low GH and low KH and you need a low KH before you start messing with pH otherwise you will add acid to the tank and the pH will drop and then will start to climbg back for about 24 hours when you will have to add more acid. pH swings are not a good thing in an aquarium. The spring water could have a pH of 14.0 and a KH of 25ppm and I'd still recommend it if you want to lower your pH. Cutting the KH down is the first thing you need to do.
 
I cant say I would think it is worth your money to go to all the trouble to buy spring water to lower a pH that isnt too rough in the first place.
 
The spring water could have a pH of 14.0 and a KH of 25ppm ....

Pretty unlikely, as the KH & pH is usually linked in water that is carbonate buffered. Some spring water has KH's in the 300+. <The minerals give it the unique taste.>

At any rate, the best advice still is: don't bother messing with the water. IT is fine!
 
Pretty unlikely, as the KH & pH is usually linked in water that is carbonate buffered. Some spring water has KH's in the 300+. <The minerals give it the unique taste.>

At any rate, the best advice still is: don't bother messing with the water. IT is fine!

That was just a theoretical situation and my point was that the KH needs to be lowered before the pH is lowered and it doesn't matter how high the pH is initially as long as the KH can be lowered to a much better level allowing pH adjustment.
 
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned that strip tests were used. It's quite possible that the pH is lower, but the test (is/was) faulty. The same goes for the kH tests.

And once again, you don't need to mess with your ph.
 
It wasn't mentioned because it's ont relevant. In the Great Lakes region it is extremley common to have a pH of 7.8-8.0 and a high KH. There was little or no error in the test. I have a pH of 7.8-8.0 and my KH is 300+ ppm so I can certainly relate.
 
Well, I think we're going to try hose/rain, which is hard/high and low/low... to HOPEFULLY create medium/medium....
 
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