Reducing Ph

[robertmarda]

I want to reduce the Ph in my tanks to keep it at about 7.1 or 7.2. Currently my 20 gallon tank is at 7.6 and my 55 gallon tank is over 7.6. The fish seem fine but I have been told its still not good for most of them. I think I read somewhere that putting some wood in the tank would lower the Ph naturally.

How much wood do I need to reduce the Ph in these two tanks?

How long will it take for the wood to reduce the Ph?

How long will the wood effectively keep the Ph at the reduced level?

If the wood tints the water, how long will the color tint remain?

[something_fishy]

I've tried baking soda, and I've also tried a variety of wood. I don't like using the wood because a lot of time it colours the water. It works, but its a pain. I just go to my lfs and pick up a bottle of ph down. It works fine. Remember though, raising or lowering your ph has to be done ever so gradually.

[Murphy]

Hi Robert, first of all what kind of fish do you have?. A P/H of 7.5 is fine for all fish ,but the most finicky (Discus). Too many times I've seen people start messing around with the P/H only to get to the point where they get so frustrated, that the hobby now becomes a pain in the but!

[ReefRaff]

I have to tell ya, I have both marine and fresh and the fresh tank I have never, I mean never, checked the PH in a freshwater tank. Now I'm NOT saying you shouldn't check it but all I have ever done w/my tank is change water and vacuum the gravel 1 a month. I have 1 african chiclid.

[robertmarda]

In my 55 gallon tank I have mollies, a platy, a swordtail, tetras, pleco, convict chiclid, firemouth chiclid, and a painted glass fish. The 20 gallon has a gourami, algea eater, and mollies.

My main concern is when I buy more fish, most of them are in water that is 7.0. I've heard/read that adjusting the Ph by more than .2 in a 24 hour time period can stress the fish. I would be doing this if I put a fish that I bought into my tank at 7.6. I recently bought 4 green tiger barbs and 1 betta. I put them in my 10 gallon tank since it is at 7.2 right now and plan to move them later to one of the other tanks. The 10 gallon is divided and the betta is on one side and the green tiger barbs are on the other side.

[loganj]

I'd leave it alone unless the fish were showing signs of stress. 7.6 is not terribly high and is pretty close to ideal for your livebearers and pleco. The others will adjust to it and probably do fine. It's great if you can keep them in water that is close to their natural habitat, but they can adjust within reason. When you start fooling with the pH, it's really easy to make too much of an adjustment and kill everything in the tank. IMO, stability is more important.
Logan J

[robertmarda]

If I leave the Ph alone then what will be the best way to introduce new fish that I buy? Will I have to add some of my tank water to the bag the fish is in and wait a while and then repeat the process or can I still just let them go in the tank after floating the bag in it for about 20 minutes?

[ReefRaff]

Float bag for 15 min, then put 2 cups of tank water in then wait 10 min, another 2 cups and 10 min the release the fish. IMO. Tim.

Personally, I acclimate fish over a period of a couple hours. I put some tank water in the bottom of a bucket designated for aquarium use, then float the fish in their bag in this to get the temperatures equalized. I use a piece of airline tubing with a knot tied in it to adjust the flow and allow water to syphon from the aquarium into the bucket very slowly (ie drip, drip, drip). When the water volume in the bag has more than doubled after a couple of hours, I net and transfer the fish.

[Toomanyfish]

I agree with the others, unless you are trying to breed fish that require a low pH, I wouldn't mess with it.
Using a pH down can be a problem in that if your water is hard, the pH will come back up. Then you start getting into fluctuations which is much more deadly than just leaving it alone.
Using driftwood is iffy because there is no set "rule" on how much and what kind of wood to use to lower pH. Most people who need to lower the pH either use peat moss or an R/O unit.
BTW, to remove the yellow tint from wood, just run carbon in your filter.....


Acclimation can be done with the bucket method, which BTW is great for saltwater (especially starfish and their relatives) or you can use the bag method.
When I use the bag, not only do I float the bag in the tank the entire time, I also open it up, and using a clean turkey baster (one used only for fish and a very handy thing to have too) I remove some of the bag water, this goes down the sink, NOT in your tank, then put some of the tank water into the bag. This way, you don't remove or add too much at one time, and I do this about every 10 minutes for an hour. By the end of the hour, it's time to net out the fish. Also remember to never add store water to your tanks. You can use the tank hood lid to hold the bag while you do this or you can use a potato chip clip (one of the large ones to close the chip bags with, another good thing to have around). I only mention the clip because I have a couple of tanks that are open topped and this works really well.....