Water Softening

[LittleNami]

And once more from the lips of my dear mum

Our water is naturally hard here (Minnesota) and quite alkaline. My mother wants to use peat to soften the water up and reduce the pH (works in my 12 gal tank well), but from the responses here, she wants to know if this is the most effective method for her tank (55gal upgrading to 100 at some point) or if there is a better method. Any suggestions?

[rich311k]

What is the KH of the water? Usually it is better to just maintain a steady ph/kh than it is to start mucking with it.

[DepotFish]

I agree. Wisconsin's water is just as bad, but its stable. It's mostly in a tolerable ph range for topicals.

[LittleNami]

Not sure, I will have to wait for her to have the time to test her tank. I don't like messing around with her tank at all >>

[Tong]

I also live in Wisconsin and have similar water quality. My water has a natural KH of 16 degrees and a natural PH of 8.2. The best advice I could give you is what has already been said, don't worry about it.

However, if you are going to worry about it then you could try CO2 injection. For under $5 you could build a DIY CO2 system. I have one and my PH is down to 7.4. With a 55 gallon tank you will need atleast 2 2 liter bottles. Probably more. I don't know if you could or should try a DIY CO2 system on a 100 gallon though. And while you're injecting CO2, you might just want to think about getting live plants. They'll love the CO2 and the hard water.

[hulkamaniac]

I think you're better off not messing w/the PH at all. I'm not a fan of messing w/water chemistry unless it's absolutely necessary (i.e. trying to breed a certain species). As long as PH is stable, fish will adapt to it and be fine IME.