odd question about vinegar

[Stefernini]

Is it safe to put vinegar in an active aquarium? My guess is no but I'm curious about it for the following reason: I have 8.0 ph out of my tap and I wasn't wanting to mess with it because I hate putting chemicals in my tank if I can help it, but then I got an idea, well my husband did, and I ran a little test out of curiosity.

This is my tap water after sitting over night

and this is my tap water after adding 5 drops pf vinegar to a 16oz glass

 

[Stefernini]

I know I can also add peat to the tank to lower it, and i know vinegar is safe to clean the tank with, being sure to rinse it really well after. I was mostly just having fun playing with my new testing kit

 

[blert]

Not sure but it's probably not a good idea unless, of course, you have a batch of chips fried up.

 

[Ardynas]

Little info on Vinegar here: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f15/vinegar-and-ph-106850.html

 

[Mumma.of.two]

I would not use vinegar in a tank like that. I've heard horror stories of people dropping bowls of it in tanks (while trying to clean the glass) and wiping out tanks. Why are you wanting to lower the pH? 8 is perfectly acceptable.

 

[HooKooDooKu]

From what I understand, using vinegar in a fish tank is safe, from the stand point that there is nothing in vinegar that can harm fish. It's basically just an acid (i.e. lowers pH).However, sudden changes in pH are very harmful to fish. And from everything I've ever read on fish keeping, you don't want to play with the pH of your fish tank. From what I understand, its sort of like chasing your tail, and you never know when the tail might suddenly turn around and bite you.So doing things like using vinegar to clean things in your fish tank (and rinsing it off before putting it in your fish tank) is safe because any residual vinegar would only have a very minor affect on pH, but not the fish... the way residue from things like a soap would.

 

[aquaponicpaw]

Thats a great observaton. my promlem is my Ph stays slightly lower than I would like it to be. Know of any home remedies for raising PH? Lol!

Going from 8 to 7 isn't such a big jump. If I was doing something like that I would just dillute the vinegar in a gallon jug and lower the ph over the course of a few days.

 

[blert]

A small amount of crush coral in your filter will raise your pH. But really, as said above, if you don't have a specific reason to be adjusting your pH you really should not mess with it as it can lead to a very slippery slope of issues.

 

[Stefernini]

I wasn't actually wanting to lower my ph, I've been looking at stock that will tolerate my 8. I was just playing with my test kit and got curious about the vinegar thing.

I don't know how to raise it tho, sorry.