ph adjustments

[urville]

been noticing everyone seems to have water they dont want from their taps, wel most people anyway.
mines always been about 7.6, kh-4, gh-8 and so have been the tanks.
i hate it but let it go for a long time..

i want a ph of 7, and kh of 5.
the lfs guy GAVE me wardleys bullseye 7 and i scoured the net and cant find any info on HOW it locks, er rather buffers the ph, or it's affects on gh and kh if any. i'm of course hesitant, i considered since i want co2 anyway to just use that to lower it down but then i'm relying on the co2 level to keep the ph and that situation is uncomfy too.
i did see seachem's 7.0 regulator but didnt want to buy it after he gave me the wardleys. thought if i felt too odd about it i'd just go buy it on his day off. anyway i'll use the wardleys if its safe. IF it's safe. it just seemed to me it was best to acidify/buffer from my now alk state of 7.6 and then add the co2 as it'll already be lower.

if i can up my kh to 5 and bring the ph to 7 i can carry 15 ppm co2 without changes.
i tried asking this a different way before but it didnt work out.
it has been my knowledge this far that to increase my kh by filtering over calcium carbonate or by adding bicarbonate. and that changing the gh was ro water mixtures to soften, and adding calcium sulfate to harden.

anyone?

 

[BrianNY]

IMO a KH of 4 is really all the buffering capacity needed. If you're injecting CO2 with a pressurized system, you can increase the bubble count gradually to bring the pH down.

That's what I did and my pH fluctuates only between 6.9 and 7.2.

HTH

 

[urville]

hmmm... well what prompted my want is this link:
http://www.aquabotanic.com/charts.htm
if i run 12 ppm co2 which i can live with, at ph-7 which is what i want, then i could stay at kh-4 i just was trying to squeeze all i could at that ph
also if i use co2 to bring my ph to 7, then if anything ever happens to my co2 system wont it wildly swing back to 7.6?
this'd be my fish = 8O

 

[urville]

hmmm... well what prompted my want is this link:
http://www.aquabotanic.com/charts.htm
if i run 12 ppm co2 which i can live with, at ph-7 which is what i want, then i could stay at kh-4 i just was trying to squeeze all i could at that ph

 

[BrianNY]

IMO the danger is with the pH moving down. If you add too much CO2 the pH will go towards the more acid side.

Most fish can tolerate an upwards move of say .6 without stress but moving rapidly downwards is stressful. Turning off the CO2 will cause a very gradual increase. Are you considering a pH monitor?

 

[urville]

i was. until i realized locally that co2 is WICKED expensive. i dont see it being a benefit until i have at least ANOTHER 3 plabted tanks. not with an investmetn of more than 250, which is what it is.
so now my question is to acidify my water down to 7 from my current 7.6 i just need to maybe filter peat? will i have to renew this source? i mean obviously since my tank and tap are the same i will at water changes, but i mean will it use up the acidifying elements of the peat all by itself?
and does it work like salt if i lose water through evap am i getting more acidfic as that happens or does it evap too?
should i just use the wardleys or Seachem?

 

[BrianNY]

I would stay away from any product that alters pH, as you're just in a constant battle to maintain it. Most tanks over time will become more acidic simply from the biological activity in the tank. What's wrong with a pH of 7.6 (if it's stable)?

 

[urville]

well.... i keep alot of amazonian fish for one. alot of the things i want to keep are going to be lower ph, i thought plants like more acidic water. just overall it seemed the thing to do.
you know honestly brian i'm sving money to move to oregon, so new tanks past about right now are probably not if at all barely possible, i can continue to maintain these which you know is great, i just... i think at one point i got so into it that i feel kinda weird if i dont have something to come home and build or aquascape, or.... i mean i'm gonna split costs with another guy to build our own canister filters which are a little more expensive than say an eheim ecco just because we cant not be starting a tank, or doing something about them. of course it's abysmal here theres no aqua club, which i think might take some time if i try to start one. i do alot of things, but the fish are one of my all time lifelong loves. it's just too cool.

 

[BrianNY]

I hear ya urville. I've been in 42 states and WY is one that I missed. I can only imagine it's rather sparse population wise.

The thing about pH is this......you can keep most any fish happy and healthy at 7.6. It's the pH swings that stress them out. In your present situation, I wouldn't worry about some magic pH number. Just go ahead and keep the filter and tank clean and you and your fish should be fine