Lowering And Maintaining Ph

hello, I have a question on products that work to lower ph. I have a 60 gallon tall tank. I used air stones in buckets of water for 48 hours to test my tap ph which was 7.8-8. I'm trying to lower it to 7.5 or Lower in my aquarium due to it being about the same reading 7.8-8 ph. Is this possible without the use of chemicals or a osmosis system and just use drift wood or almond leafs as a somewhat perminet ph maintainer? Maybe just periodically change the wood out when the Tannins start to run low? I also have a question on how to prepare the wood prior to putting it in the aquarium. Does boiling the wood lower the tannins? If so how much? Would I benefit more by just letting it soak for 1-2 weeks? Would soaking it remove tannins? I also don't have a KH test but ordered one today.

 

Driftwood, peat moss and leaves all help lower ph. To what extent I'm not exactly sure so you would have to play around with it. I have gotten all my driftwood out of the creek so most tanins were already out of them.

 

My question would be, why do you want to lower your PH?

 

pH isn’t important as long as the fish are captive bred. Wild caught are a different thing. Do not try to get the “perfect pH” because that will lead to fluctuations which will kill your fish. Keep it stable. I have discus that “need” a very acidic water but I have kept my discus in 8.1 and there have been no deaths.

 

It's really hard to lower ph. Every time you do a water change it will go up. Its an endless battle that takes much joy out of fishkeeping. Most fish will adapt to a slight ph change if done slowly. Unless your keeping fish that really need low ph I would leave it alone. Driftwood probably won't lower it much but they look good so try some. I've heard discus need low ph but I think they may be ok if the tank is kept warm. Cardinals too.

 

A constant pH is better than a lower inconsistent pH. pH swings are deader than temperature ones in most cases.

7.8 is not a bad pH to be at. My tank for reference is at 8.0. My fish are fine because it is constant. Having a 7.0 pH is unrealistic.

Driftwood can help to lower it, but I do not believe it will lower it to the results you are hoping for. Same with Almond Leaves and Peat Moss.

 

I can only echo what everyone else has said. I have the same pH water and looked around at options for lowering it. I have massive pieces of driftwood in 3 of my aquariums but the pH hasn't budged in over a year. I found out from folks here that this is a good thing! Peat in your filter is probably the more effective way than driftwood or IAL when you want to use tap water, but its effect will run out over time and you have to keep checking it. Using injected CO2 will also lower pH, but you have to ensure it's regulated and doesn't run out or you can create pH shifts.

The pH is really the most important for setting up ideal breeding conditions. The best way to a specific pH is to start with RO/DI water and mix in something like Equilibrium to remineralize it, but you need a pretty fancy calculator (and a better brain) than I have to do it properly and consistently!

I have also read that your GH and KH values are more significant, mostly the KH because it will be the best indicator (beyond time and testing) of how stable your pH will be.

 

I’ve read everything above in one thread or another. I agree driftwood will make little difference. I have 2 identical tanks (20 talks). One has driftwood, one doesn’t. PH is the exact same. I do 25% WCs weekly so any benefits of the driftwood is reduced to nothing because of the WCs.

But I boiled mine for 5-6 hours to get the tanins out so maybe that reduced the benefit of lowering PH?

 

mopanI drift wood will lower your ph and kh and gh will tann the water but u can use charcol in a filter bag floating in the tank and that will clear it up peat moss is good to both are safe for your fish

 

Thanks for the information guys I appreciate it. I was just under the impression that 7.8-8 is a high ph for my dwarf gourami's ? I see that the ph recommended for most fish is 6.5-8 So what would you consider to high of a ph?

 

7.8 is perfectly fine for dwarf gouramis. I've housed a honey for awhile now in 7.8 PH and he's been very happy and healthy. Having enough KH (buffering capacity) is the key, because it keeps your PH from fluctuating.