James_in_MN
Aquarium Advice FINatic
The tap water at my apartment tested at the following:
7.8 pH
8[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]°[/FONT] GH
8[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]°[/FONT] KH
Thinking that would be too high for the fish I was looking to add (black neon tetra, ghost shrimp, otto cats, dwarf gourami, and either glowlight or gold tetra), I started my tank with 60% tap and 40% RO water (with Kent RO Right and pH Stable added to the RO water only before combining).
My aquarium now tests at:
7.6 pH
4[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]°[/FONT] GH
5[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]°[/FONT] KH
I believe that I have three options for water changes in the future. I'd probably change 25% at a time.
1) 100% tap water, which would send the pH back up to 7.8 over time.
2) 100% RO water, which could drop the pH faster than the fish would be able to handle. Am I right?
3) 50% tap and 50% RO water. I'm of the opinion that this would be the safest path if I were looking to slowly lower the pH, if I should even do it at all.
My preference is to not dump a bunch of chemicals into my tank to try to force the pH to be at 7.0. I'm an aquarist, not a chemist.
Thoughts?
7.8 pH
8[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]°[/FONT] GH
8[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]°[/FONT] KH
Thinking that would be too high for the fish I was looking to add (black neon tetra, ghost shrimp, otto cats, dwarf gourami, and either glowlight or gold tetra), I started my tank with 60% tap and 40% RO water (with Kent RO Right and pH Stable added to the RO water only before combining).
My aquarium now tests at:
7.6 pH
4[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]°[/FONT] GH
5[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]°[/FONT] KH
I believe that I have three options for water changes in the future. I'd probably change 25% at a time.
1) 100% tap water, which would send the pH back up to 7.8 over time.
2) 100% RO water, which could drop the pH faster than the fish would be able to handle. Am I right?
3) 50% tap and 50% RO water. I'm of the opinion that this would be the safest path if I were looking to slowly lower the pH, if I should even do it at all.
My preference is to not dump a bunch of chemicals into my tank to try to force the pH to be at 7.0. I'm an aquarist, not a chemist.
Thoughts?