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Ways to lower pH
Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 5:58 pm
by Kunsthure
I've been mixing my 7.8 pH tap water with water I've run through a Brita filter to lower my pH. But I'm wondering if the filter is removing some necessary minerals. I would like to add CRS to my 13g tank with yellows and malawas but I'm not sure the Brita method is going to provide consistent results. The pH may start at 6.8 or 7.0, but over the course of the week, it rises back to 7.4 because my KH is 1 after mixing the Brita and tap water together. I've been reading here and elsewhere about CO2 in shrimp tanks and I'm wondering if using a small amount of CO2 would work to keep my pH in a CRS happy range. The tank is planted with anubias, crypts, lace java fern and some moss, so the plants don't need it. I'd use a small bottle, and a small amount of yeast so there wouldn't be much produced. If I make the investment in CRS, I want to make sure they'll breed so I won't have to replace them. If this is a dumb idea, please take it easy on me.
-Lisa
Re: Ways to lower pH
Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 10:01 pm
by Mustafa
If you go to any supermarket, you should be able to find one of those huge reverse osmosis machines outside that give you a gallon for approximately $0.25 cents. You can use that straight or mix some tap water back into it. If you can't find those machines anywhere, just get a few bottles of destilled water. Mix in some tap water to provide some minerals (destilled water has nothing else but H2O (water molecules) in it) and you're good to go.
Before you measure any pH, you should aerate the water to get an accurate reading. The reason why your Brita generated water has a lower Ph before being put into you tank is because there is still lots of CO2 in the water (right after it's been filtered), which gets driven out through aeration (water movement) in your tank. CO2 in water becomes carbonic acid which lowers pH.
Other than that just perform a few searches in this forum as there are a few threads that extensively discuss certain pH lowering methods...including a method using acids, which, needless to say, can be quite dangerous for both you and your tank inhabitants, if you aren't very, very careful.