What do you guys do to lower pH?

[fishlover424]

Hi everyone!

I am new to this forum and quite new to the aquarium hobby as well and I was wondering how experienced aquarists lower their pH. I heard that adding driftwood and filtering with peat moss helps lower it over time but what about when you're doing water changes? Can you use rainwater? My rainwater has a pH of about 6.5 which is pretty close to the pH I want to achieve (6.6).
Are their any dangers of using rainwater? What about snowwater (heated of course)? Are their any dangers of using water from outside after filtering it through cloth and/or a sink filter? Or maybe I should get a water softener? How do you guys do it?

Thanks for your help!

[MChambers]

Google is your friend:

http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... hp?t=37711

[catfishchaos]

RO water is what most people do here.

[dpm1]

First question is why do you need to lower pH?
Then its what are the start:finish parameters you wish to achieve, notably the tap, tank and desired levels.

I find may people overestimate the importance of ph compared to the hardness of the water, a factor not helped by false assumption that it will be soft/acid or hard/alkaline, something that tap water rarely follows as it is artificially buffered to higher pH to prevent pipe erosion. Its also not helped by the industry itself, eg API master kit not having GH/KH included.

My tap water is tds50-130 (very weather dependent, also too low for the normal liquid tests hence the switch to tds) as it runs off granite moors dominated by heath and bogs. Standard wisdom dictates a very low pH to match but actual tests reveal pH 7.3-9.3 averaging 7-8.5 in mature tanks.

In general my fish don't show any Ill effects of this higher pH unlike similar out-of-range hardness figures.

I do use acid to lower pH but only if attempting breeding. In community tanks if the pH is below 8 I simply leave it alone.

[fishlover424]

Hi dpm3,
I want to lower pH to provide my fish with similar conditions they would encounter in the wild and maybe have them breed!
My tap water has a pH of about 7.8 and is probably very hard although I didn't measure. I know that rainwater probably doesn't have any hardness at all and its pH would be perfect for my aquarium. So I started this post so people can help me decide if I would be better off using rain and snowwater or by just using peat and wood. I also have the option of using a pH-lowering substance which is available at my local pet store. I believe that using all of the methods above except the pH-lowerer would lower the hardness of the water at the same time. I'm not familiar with the tds measuring system as I'm a beginner but I hope I answered your question.
Thanks for your advice!

[Shane]

http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... el#p244982

-Shane

[fishlover424]

Hi everyone,
I apologize, but I should've looked around before starting this post. Thank you MChambers and Shane for the great links!