Tony Posted December 2, 2003 Report Share Posted December 2, 2003 Last night I bought a ph test kit and tested my tank water which I estimated against the colour chart to be a few points into the alkaline say 7.4 from memory. I then tested our tap water straight from the tap which gave a reading of pretty much neutral maybe a shade alkaline. Anyway I was pleased with both readings which indicated a reasonable stability as I hadn't done a water change say for 5 days or so. Now I am wondering how you folk would go about lowering the ph to just below neutral into the acidic regions i.e to soften the water. I'm not an expert on ph readings but based on the condition of my fish who all seem happy I assume these readings are perfectly acceptable. Anyway your thoughts re ph lowering with discuss in mind will be appreciated. Thanks guys Tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted December 3, 2003 Report Share Posted December 3, 2003 Easiest and cheapest way would be to put a bunch of peat in the filter. That will soften it a bit and lower the PH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert Posted December 3, 2003 Report Share Posted December 3, 2003 I have five tanks with discus in them,all tanks have a small amount of peat in the filter in a bag.You do not need a lot,just a good hand full is all i use,change it about every three weeks.The peat is very benifical for most fish and i have very healhty fish that never need any medicen or chemicals to treat them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted December 3, 2003 Report Share Posted December 3, 2003 make sure it is "straight" peat,and doesn't have any fertilizer in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted December 3, 2003 Report Share Posted December 3, 2003 Just one point - pH and hardness are not the same thing. As people have pointed out peat will lower both though. Another thing - you've mentioned that your tap water is pretty much neutral but it seems that your tank pH is higher - this sort of indicates that either the gravel or rocks in the setup may be raising your pH a little (not really a problem, as you say there's no problems with your current fish - but if you go for discus possibly you'll require more peat than you'd thought to soften the water). The natural tendency for tank pH is to become more acidic. Because the water here in Hamilton comes out of the tap reasonalby alkaline but softish I only really want to adjust the pH (not doing anything to the hardness) so I adjust it with sulphuric acid (I've figured out how many drops I need to add to the water change bucket to get the desired pH - I don't really want to add concentrated acid directly to a populated tank). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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