JRunyon21

I just recently purchased two soft water dwarf cichlids and it states that they need water with a pH that ranges from 6.6 - 7.2. My pH is around 7.8-8.0. I thought I would be able to get by if I just bought spring water and used it I would be fine but to my discovery the spring water has a pH of about 7.6 maybe higher. That screwed me. There are no fish in the tank now and I was wondering if anyone knew how to get my pH down a little(chemicals). I have activated carbon so when the pH is lowered I can put the carbon in and get the chemical out right before I put my fish in. By the way, my fish are on mail order and will be here next wednesday. PLEASE HELP. I paid a lot for these fish and do not want them to go bottom up when I get them.

Also, the water tests show that the water is fairly hard as well. LOL.
Any way to get this down by next wednesday

Calling all fish gurus. I need some help.

sirdarksol

Most fish will adjust to a different pH than what is natural for them, as long as it's stable.
I don't know if the cichlids you have are among those. I'll leave that up to those with more knowledge of cichlids.

If you need to lower the pH, there are only three things that I know of that will work for this:

1) Fill a pillowcase with peat moss, put it in a garbage can filled about halfway with water, put an airstone in the bottom of the garbage can, and let the water percolate for a week. This should remove a lot of the hardness from the water and lower the pH. You'll need to do some mixing and careful testing to make sure that the water at water changes has the same pH as in the tank.

2) Use distilled water and a freshwater mineral additive to get the right pH/hardness.

3) Use RO water and a freshwater mineral additive to get the right pH/hardness.