ooibhuskyoo

So I test my tap water, and without a high range test, it's testing at 7.6, so it might be higher. I want to add an angel in my tank, and I hear it's best to keep the pH at 7.0. Please let me know what I can do to lower the pH!

Thanks,
Calvin

Angela_96

You could keep a bag of peat in your filter and or ad driftwood that would lower the ph. There are a lot of fish that will adjust to a higher ph though.

aquarist48

http://www.fishlore.com/acclimating-tropicalfish.htm
If you do decide to add the angel I would like to suggest the drip acclimation method. Angel's are sensitive to water conditions but should adapt to the pH levels in your tap (as steveangela mentioned) if they are acclimated correctly. Best of luck and keep us posted.

ooibhuskyoo

I would still prefer keeping my pH in a neutral range.

Is there any chemicals (such as API pH Down) that anyone can recommend to use with fish already in my tank with live plants?

Thanks,
Calvin

MissMTS

Using chemicals to alter your pH is a recipe for disaster. The chemical buffers strip the water of its natural buffers and cause pH fluctuation. Having a stable pH is the most important factor. I have kept angelfish sucessfully in my water which has a pH out of the tap of 7.8. Just do a slow acclimation like Aquarist48 suggested and they will be fine

ooibhuskyoo

Thanks for the responses.

I do not want to harm or stress my fish, so I will do what you guys are suggesting and slowly acclimate the angel.

I am still sort of confused about the drip method of acclimation. Can I just do the floating bag method, but do it very slowly?

MissMTS

That works too. I would use a little measuring spoon to add the water to the bag. When the bag gets close to full, dump out half of the water (in the sink, not in your tank) and slowly fill the bag one more time. The whole process takes about 3 hours. I use this method to acclimate my bettas and it works great

ooibhuskyoo

I will keep you guys updated with how my water, and when I get the angel on Friday, how the acclimation goes! After watching the drs f&s video plenty of times, I just might try the drip method.

Angela_96

The drip method isn't hard to do, get a bucket, put the fish in the water from their bags in, get some tubing (if you have access to iv tubing its a little cheaper) or from the LFS and set it to drip slowly over an hour, once the bucket has double the water pour half out and go again until half and so on. Then your fish will be ready for the tank. I only use this method for SW but it would do FW as well.

Angela_96

I hope they don't check my pockets at work now when I leave lol. I only bring new tubing home about every 6 months.

ooibhuskyoo

HMMM...interesting.. I should ask my girlfriend to bring some IV tubing from school now =)

Angela_96

Great, Im teaching people to steal now. Oh well, its just iv tubing. I also have about 10 60cc syringes (great for cleaning my live rock off in my sw tank).... giving meds to the fish with perfect measurments......... I actually asked my boss for them and got them a few months ago so they knew what they were for and why.

ooibhuskyoo

LOL it's ok.. My mom is the Director of Nursing at a dialysis clinic here... I think I can get supplies from her! yay!

Bad Wolf

i have the opposite problem, my tap water is naturally a pH of 6.5 and the water is very soft.