Ptera
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Question: Is it safe to add vinegar to tap water before adding it to the aquarium? How much is safe? Or else, what are your other recommendations?
The situation:
We have a community well here and the pH of the water has been changing over time, but usually not much at once.
When the aquarium was first set up back in May 2020, the pH hung out 7.2-7.5 and gH 2, it was lovely.
Before getting nerites (and shrimp in another aquarium), we started gradually adding equilibrium during water changes and now keep our aquariums at 8 gH by amending the water we add during water changes.
Last summer is when we began to notice the pH rising (and this was when they took out a lot of fir & cedar trees to develop the neighborhood - I suspect this has something to do with the pH changes we've noticed). The gH is still 2.
In the past, I've been able to make a strong "tea" to add to my water (before it goes into my tank) by keeping several catappa leaves in a small closed container of water. It doesn't make a HUGE difference, but the pH wasn't creeping up too quickly either. This process allowed me to more slowly raise the pH in my tank to 8 without harming the fish. Now the pH of our tap water is suddenly up to 8.5 and I haven't been able to get catappa leaves.
What do I do?
Thank you!
The situation:
We have a community well here and the pH of the water has been changing over time, but usually not much at once.
When the aquarium was first set up back in May 2020, the pH hung out 7.2-7.5 and gH 2, it was lovely.
Before getting nerites (and shrimp in another aquarium), we started gradually adding equilibrium during water changes and now keep our aquariums at 8 gH by amending the water we add during water changes.
Last summer is when we began to notice the pH rising (and this was when they took out a lot of fir & cedar trees to develop the neighborhood - I suspect this has something to do with the pH changes we've noticed). The gH is still 2.
In the past, I've been able to make a strong "tea" to add to my water (before it goes into my tank) by keeping several catappa leaves in a small closed container of water. It doesn't make a HUGE difference, but the pH wasn't creeping up too quickly either. This process allowed me to more slowly raise the pH in my tank to 8 without harming the fish. Now the pH of our tap water is suddenly up to 8.5 and I haven't been able to get catappa leaves.
What do I do?
Thank you!
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