Angelika

Is it relative to PH.... I know my perch supposidly prefer very soft, slightly acidic.. In phx I have a PH of 7.6 which is obviously more alkaline as 7 is neutral... and below is acidic.. so if I reduced the PH to slightly acidic with 'PH Down', does that mean my water now is slightly soft...?

jdhef

Your fish will most likely aclimate to the Ph of 7.6. It is more danegrous to the fish to be in a fluctuating Ph, and adding products such as Ph Down will result in Ph swings. I have Odessa Barbs which supposedly prefer slightly acidic soft water that are doing fine in my tank with a PH of 7.8.

Just because fish prefer something, does not mean that they can't do well in a less that prefered environment. Let's face it, I'd prefer to be driving a Ferrari, yet somehow I survive just fine without one.

Shawnie

I agree with jd...never use chemicals to mess with the ph...steady ph is better and most fish acclimate very easily

Angelika

Thankyou both! I will take the product back along with the 'cycle' product.

0morrokh

Just to clarify...pH & "hardness" are 2 different things. Often soft water has a low pH and hard water has a high pH, but adjusting the pH will not change your hardness. They are related though...so if your water is very hard (and thus has a high "buffering capacity") you probably won't be able to lower your pH much anyway...

Oh btw if we want to get technical, the hardness of the water (GH) and the buffering capacity (KH) are actually two different things...

Hope I didn't just confuse you...hmm maybe I'll try and find an article.

pepetj

Angelika, I have been reading about this, considering lowering both pH and KH since I choosed severums as tankmates for my oscars. I dropped the project, since the severums were living in 7.4 and 7.6 pH at the LFSs.

GH is just the measure of General Hardness (including KH and then some), KH is more specific to carbonate and alikes. GH will allways be greater or close to equal, but never lower than KH. As far as I understand this, I'm no expert.

The safest method I have found, if done carefully, is by filtering with peat, which can be done directly in your tank or -even safer- if you treat the water appart and then add it slowly to your tank. If you don't want the stained-tea coloured water effect, just use activated charcoal media.

There's commercially available, aquarium safe brands, as Fluval peat fiber. It's not that complicated but takes a careful trial and error approach. If your water is pH 7.6, and is way too hard, this will likely be a costly enterprise.

However, if you have medium to hard, but not very hard water, this might be within reach. Real risk for pH swings would be in the scenario of bringing down pH in allready soft water; some reports I read, state that keeping KH at 2 or 3dH as safe against pH crash. Crash of pH down to 4.5 have been reported in soft water with high pH.

The effect of peat in water depends on several factors, but you will notice slight, but gradual, elevations in pH once the peat begins to wear down -usually within a month, could be more though. In that moment, just replace the peat and keep an eye on KH. If KH is still at 2 or 3dH, wait a bit more, until it's at 4 or 5dH.

If your wonderful spotted perch (thanks to you I read their profile a few days ago), was caught in the wild, then he/she might struggle in hard water with high pH. If not wild, I guess he/she should acclimate with no problems.

Keep us posted.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

COBettaCouple

Our pH is 7.6 also. The fish acclimate to the pH and keeping the pH stable is the best thing, so I recommend not using chemicals that alter pH.

0morrokh

Yeah I forgot to mention, my pH is over 8...there's no reason to change your pH unless you're breeding something like tetras...