Lowering Ph from 7.8 to around 6.8 - 7. Will this work?

HI everyone, I've been reading a lot on this site about lowering Ph... but none of threads are quite answering my specific questions. I'm hoping for some expert help!

So I recently bought (unexpectedly) a 5.5 gallon tank with 8 Crystal Black Shrimp in it. I really was just looking for a small tank for my home office, and there was someone selling this complete setup locally for an amazing price, so I jumped at it. I currently keep freshwater fish and Cherry shrimp in various tanks, all in tap water that reads Ph 7.8, GH 10 and Kh 6, so pretty hard water. These shrimp require low Ph and are in RO water that is remineralized with Salty Shrimp/Bee Gh+. Using RO water is new for me, but I'm getting a handle on it.

The shrimp tank has a substrate that apparently is raising the Ph too high... the current readings, with RO water, are Ph 7.8, Gh 5 and Kh 0. The shrimp are doing fine, but barely breeding because of this (the seller actually thought they were all males because they weren't breeding). I found 2 babies in the tank after I got it set up at home, so clearly that isn't the case! I would like to lower the Ph to their preferred range (6.8 - 7 is what I'm aiming for), but I realize the importance of doing this carefully. A shrimp expert here on Fishlore (richiep) suggested swapping out the substrate in one go, with Fluval Stratum (that's the North American equivalent of the product he recommended). The new substrate will help to keep the Ph at around neutral, which is ideal. So his suggestion (with risks) is to remove the shrimp & water to a bucket, swap the substrate, then put the shrimp & water back in.

I had a thought to put the existing substrate into some small media bags, and leave them in the filter compartment (it's big) and every few days, remove one. The idea is to keep that buffer but gradually lower it.

Is this a good idea? Will it work the way I'm hoping? I wasn't sure if lowering Ph would work like this. Would it gradually drop, as the buffer is removed? Or is this one of those things where there's a 'tipping point', and the Ph would stay the same until there isn't enough buffer, and then drop? I want to do this as safely as possible, and not kill my new shrimp. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

I'd just do what Rich says. Like you mentioned the pH start to change once the buffer is used.

 

Thanks, H. That's the plan (to do as suggested by richiep) but just wondered if I could 'slow down' the Ph drop at all by keeping a bit of the old substrate... trying to wrap my head around if it would make a difference or not.
?

 

richie.p he's on the way

 

Add the stratum, no need to keep the substrate. You will have to keep up on your water changes as these substrates reales ammonia

 

these substrates reales ammonia

ugh, how much ammonia are we talking about? The tank is well established (2 years) so is this a concern?

 

I think the ammonia is to little to worry about your filter should refine that just as it doe with anything else that decomposes, the fact its an active substrait dose this, if you are concerned just do some ammonia checks daily and if you see anything just put one droplet of prime out of a small syringe directly into the tank, tbh I.dont think you'll have a problem
Your ph will drop by about .2 each day. Again if your concerned only add ⅓ of the total substrait every week this will slow things down or put some old substrait in the filter and remove weekly

 

Thanks richie.p. I'm not overly concerned about the ammonia, I'm sure the filter can handle it. I will be testing things regularly anyway until everything settles after the substrate change, so I'll keep a close eye on it.

Thanks everyone for the help

 

Keep us posted of how it goes

 

Will do. Hoping to post some pics as well after I tackle the substrate switch project (hopefully on Saturday)
Thanks again!

 

ugh, how much ammonia are we talking about? The tank is well established (2 years) so is this a concern?
[/QUOTE\]
As long as your filter is established it shouldn’t be a problem.

 

HI all, just a little update with some pics! I swapped out the old substrate with Fluval Stratum. Such a difference! You can actually see all the shrimp now - with the old substrate, they'd blend right in. I'm going to get some Wisteria this week, the height of the tank calls for some taller plants in back

Regarding the Ph, I've kept 3 baggies of substrate in the filter compartment... so far, Ph hasn't changed. I'll keep an eye on it this week and see how it goes.

So far, so good

First the before:


and the after:

 

HI all, just thought I'd post a little update. Everything is going very well in the tank. The Ph dropped gradually, and is now at 6.2. And... no losses! All the shrimp are doing great! I even noticed one of the females is berried! I've added some more plants (wisteria). Found a few moults over the past week as well. Success!!!

What is also interesting to me is that their behaviour has changed noticably with the lower Ph. Before, they seemed incredibly irritated when near each other. If 2 shrimp touched each other, they would jump, as if they were startled. They never wanted to be near each other (that's how it appeared, anyway). Stress I guess? Now that the Ph is in the desired range, they will eat right next to each other, and walk on each other, with no negative reaction when they come into contact with one another. Hoping for lots of babies soon!