My tap water is extremely high pH (10.2)

[Endymion]

I just bought my first aquarium, a 75 gallon, and I'm still researching and buying everything I need.

Today I tested the tap water and pH is off the charts using the liquid high range ph test. I then used an electric meter and it read 10.2. I thought surely this must be some mistake and I looked up the water quality report they and tested a high of 10.4

For anybody interested the water parameters are on page 17 https://www.amwater.com/MOAW/resources/pdf/ccr/StLouisRegion_2021.pdf

I planned on a planted aquarium with fluval stratum and drfitwood. Will the pH drop on it's own enough for me to have a normal community tank?

Doing some research it also looks like it would make a good Lake Tanganyika tank?

Thank you for any suggestions and advice!

 

[rlederer]

Or you can invest in a reverse osmosis setup. Not too expensive. Then you can have whatever pH you need.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

I can't read the water report, it says forbidden

A pH of 10.2 is higher than Lake Tanganyika and is pretty close to household bleach. I doubt you will be able to lower the pH without using a reverse osmosis unit, rain water, distilled water or bottled water.

If you live in a warm climate you can make a solar still out of a plastic storage container and a bucket. That would give you pure water with 0GH, 0KH and a pH of 7.0. You could then use this water to mix with some tap water to get a more acceptable water chemistry. If you want more info on the solar still let me know and I will post the instructions here. It's really simple and just involves a bucket in a plastic storage container with some water, and left out in the sun.

A reverse osmosis does a similar thing but you waste a lot of water to get pure water. The best ratios are 1:1 with 1 litre of waste water for 1 litre of pure water. Most cheaper units are 2:1 or 3:1 and produce 2, 3 or even more litres of waste water for every 1 litre of pure water. You would use the pure water to mix with the tap water to get the desired pH, GH and KH.