Ph ajusting product question

[Bert B]

I live in an area where the water is very hard. I see products like PROPER PH 7.0 and other PH ratings for different bottles. Is this stuff any good and does it maintain the PH that it claims to ? I have never used this stuff and want to make sure that it just doesn't change the PH to the number on the bottle and then have it bounce back to where it was a few days later. I have lost the use of my left hand and arm so I need something that will work and maintain my PH where I need it to be without a lot of mixing chemicals all the time. I want to maintain a neutral PH of about 7.0.
Bert

[jsoong]

pH adjusting chemicals in general do NOT work. Hard water generally have high KH (or buffering capacity), so it will resist pH changes. Using any pH adjuster will simply cause pH to bounce up & down ... which is much worse than an out of range pH.

Depends on what your water is like, it is generally NOT necessary to mess with your water chemistry. Within reason, most fish will adapt to an out of range pH. The only reason to mess with the water is if you have some exotic species or if you are trying to breed discus & the like.

To alter water pH effectively (and to maintain stability), you need to change the buffering system. This is more complicated than just dumping in a bunch of chemicals. Your best bet (if you really want to doctor the water) is to mix in R/O water & tap <or R/O & salt mix if you are doing SW or Brackish.>

[Bert B]

thanks, i had a feeling that chemicals would be a waste of time & money. I need to concentrate on fish that will better adapt to the hard water like africans or maybe even a marine tank, I just can no longer lift a 5 gallon bucket to do the water changes like i used to 20 years ago when the tank was marine. I now use a python to add water after water changes, it is a lot easier when you only have 1 good arm/hand.