how can i acidify my water?

gibbylover2 · Post by **gibbylover2** » 08 Mar 2005, 13:14

HI there,
have recently set up a sort-of blackwater biotope tank, with natural sand, driftwood and rocks. have 2 gibbies and a gold nugget currently. want to get the ph down to replicate their natural water conditions, however my local water must be hard or something because despite having an abundance of decomposing driftwood th pH is still 7.8. Should i get some peat and boil it up? where do you get peat from (garden supply store?) should i be worried? i realise that i prob can't breed my gibbies because they need mud banks, and i only have one gold nugget, so breeding is not an issue.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 08 Mar 2005, 13:23

You can use peat to lower the pH, or perhaps old leaves (I think Shane has written something about that recently).

However, maintaining artifical pH (whether high or low) is a pain, and if you don't see that your current inhabitants are suffering from the pH at the moment, I would keep going as is.

Another possibility is to get a Reverse Osmosis unit. That will give you "pure water", with no hardness whatsoever. That will make it easier to adjust the pH, and of course, you can also either mix in hardening salts or tap water to make it harder water.

As long as your water is hard, you'll probably struggle to make it acidic, as the hardness will act as a buffer, so you need to add enough acidity to first remove the buffer.

If you have lower hardness, it won't necesarily lower the pH, but it will allow for less "additives" needed for the water to be pH corrected.

--
Mats

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 08 Mar 2005, 19:33

i agree with mats in that there's probably no need to change it. i think that gibbies and nuggets are hardy enough to thrive in hard water, provided other factors like feeding and feeling secure are satisfied.

if you do want to change the water, i would strongly recommend that you don't mess around. get an RO unit. half measures like a small bag of peat or a few leaves will do very little to KH, GH or pH in hard water areas. i filled a pint glass with beech leaves and topped it up with hard tapwater. the pH dropped by just 0.2 in one month. it did nothing to hardness.

i do suggest a digital (properly calibrated) pH meter. it's amazing how wrong those chemical tests are. i thought for years that my tapwater was at 8.5. it's really 7.4!

read these posts on the subject....

http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... ght=#55162

http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... ght=#58309