Help! How to lower ph in a 90 gallon tank without making the water unclear

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Justin144

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Aug 9, 2013
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236
My ph level is about 7.6 and I want to drop it to about 7.0 in my new 90 gallon tank . The filtration set up is a fluval 405 canister filter . So does anyone know a good clean way to lower the ph level ?
 
I guess you could dillute the water with r/o water but thats sketchy at best. Why exactly do you want to change the pH?
 
It's at about 7.5-7.6 and I want to lower it to about 7.2 because I read that fire eel do better in lower ph.
 
That's not terribly high. Your pH will be perfectly fine for the fire eel. What you really have to worry about is if the pH rapidly shifts which will happen if you try to adjust it. It's far better to leave the pH as it is rather than try to adjust it.
 
Really ? Well thank you so much!! I will stop trying to adjust it then . Should I slowly acclimate the eel then in case the stores tank ph is different?
 
I just tested my ph and it's 7.4 and the ph coming out of my faucet is 7.3 so I think I'm just going to stick with what I'm at then . Thank you so much for responding to my question!! :)
 
Bear in mind also, as your tank ages, the pH typically will drop a few points as well. Sometimes called old tank syndrome. The buffering capacity of the water slowly gets used up.. and if you want to know what that is, you will have to look up water chemisty, because it is a fairly complex topic and I am not the greatest expert on it, to say the least.

But you got good advice. Trying to alter the pH of the tap water you have is really quite difficult, especially if the water is hard. My local water is rock hard, and that's not bad, it means my pH rarely changes by much, and fish are much happier with stable pH than they are if it is constantly changing.

There are ways to lower pH.. you can use peat moss in the filter, for one. Or use some RO or DI water mixed with tap.. but if straight tap will do, it is almost always the easiest and safest course to take. Most fish are quite adaptable and the ones that are not, well, that's a thing you needed to know before you bought one. Research first, always.
 
I haven't bought one yet, I'm currently setting up a tank for one. I just want all the conditions to be perfect for him/her when I do get it in a month
 
Hello Justin...

Getting to a neutral pH and maintaining it will be difficult. You could add driftwood to the tank. The pieces will, in most cases, leach tannic acid into the water and this will lower the pH. But this is only temporary and tannins will turn the tank water an amber color. Some put peat into nylon bags and drop the bag into the tank water. The natural means of adjusting the acidity or alkalinity of the water are best. You want to avoid putting chemicals into the tank.

B
 
I got alot of driftwood in the tank , Amd won't the peat off color my water ? And should I not be trying go clear the tannins out of my water them ?

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Old tank syndrome rarely happens unless a tank is neglected for a long time. When doing weekly water changes the tap water, which is normally high in calcium and magnesium, renews buffers the are used. As long as you keep up on WC's, do gravel vacuuming since you don't have a planted tank, and keep filters cleaned on a regular schedule your water will be just fine.

Your really don't want to get into using RO water to lower Ph in a large tank. Been there and done that and it is a lot of work. Just remember most all fish today, except for certain delicate and wild caught species, acclimate just fine to most tanks ph. A stable ph is always the best for fish and other tank inhabitants.
 
Tannins are actually good for many fish. It us humans who don't care for how it looks, because yes, peat and wood can both turn water yellow or brown. New wood, if not soaked or boiled well first, can turn water dark as coffee at first. It gradually lightens with time.

I soak wood for months in a bucket first and often use bleach to speed it up and lighten the wood as well. Rinse thoroughly and use extra dechlor' if I bleached it. Boiling is too much effort for me.. and the stove is quite small, making it hard to do for large pieces anyway.

The question really is, do you truly need to lower your pH at all ? Unless the fish you intend to keep need acidic pH, I doubt you need to do anything to the water other than dechlorinate it. Fish are quite adaptable, most common species would vastly prefer stable tap pH over changing pH. Over the past year, I've noticed the pH in my tanks is now around 7.2, when the tap water itself is around 7.6. Old tank ? I am not sure, but it is lower than the tap water now, and did not used to be. I do regular water changes, so they do get added new water.

Adding wood does very slightly acidify, but the effect is no more permanent than the leaching is. Peat is the same, must be renewed to maintain the effect. It is a lot of work for very little or possibly no gain to you or the fish. Trying to get an exact pH, in any water, is quite hard to do. And constant adjustment is very stressful for fish. Unless your tap water has issues that make it totally unsuited for fish, say, chemicals or other contaminants, usually it is best to use tap.

Or else go for RO and remineralize it to the required hardness and pH, which means buying the RO water, or an RO filter system, plus the mineralizing products. Costs money. RO filters also waste a certain percentage of every gallon they filter, which can't be recovered, and you pay for that water.

So give it some thought. Being obsessive over a few points in pH is liable to make you crazy and your fish will not thank you for it either.
 
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