How to lower pH?

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Austin.b

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In my planted tank the pH is way too high and I can see it's affecting my livestock:( how would I go about lowering it? I can't use anything with copper, if that helps at all. Thank you.
 
How high is too high? What species do you have you think are being affected, and what are they doing? Manually changing your pH can be tricky business and usually not work it.

That being said, driftwood is usually your best bet.
 
aqua_chem said:
How high is too high? What species do you have you think are being affected, and what are they doing? Manually changing your pH can be tricky business and usually not work it.

That being said, driftwood is usually your best bet.

Mainly just shrimp, I'm still having some die offs. The only thing I can contribute the deaths too, is the high pH. Some of my shrimp wont move for hours. I don't have any room for driftwood:( sorry
 
catappa leaves will lower ph much like driftwood.
 
Alkane said:
catappa leaves will lower ph much like driftwood.

Awesome! I will check eBay later, thanks! Could I put them directly into the tank? Would they release tannins? Or change the water to black water?
 
Yah they will give u black water. If you have a small tank and ur pH is high be careful not to lower it too fast.

also consider your water source...if the tank is small enough u could buy water from the store, or collect rain water. if its a large tank u may want to invest in a di filter.
 
Here's the thing. High pH generally means high KH. High KH means heavily buffered water. Heavily buffered water means lower changes in pH for a similar amount of tanins released. So even adding organic acids from leaves, etc, will only lower it a trivial amount. Also, as pH is a log scale, the pH change to go from 7.4 to say 7 is a lot less than to go from 8.4 to 8.

If you really want a dramatic impact on pH, rodi water or rain eater will probably be your best bet.
 
aqua_chem said:
What pH are you at anyways?

It's so embarrassing:(, last time I checked it was at 8.2. I can do another test tomorrow. I have alot of homework tonight. Sorry.
 
And what's your tap water pH? Because if it is acidic-neutal then you possibly have something in your tank that shouldn't be there (crushedcoral, barnacle skeleton..ect.)
 
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