It's 120 right now how do I lower it?? It's freshwater
2006-11-06 06:17:50 · 3 answers · asked by sogullablegurly 3 in Pets ➔ Fish
Why are you concerned about your alkalinity? 120 ppm (~ 7 kH)is soft water. 140-200 is medium, and beyond that it's considered hard. Really it's General hardness (GH) that you need to worry about more than kH. Also it depends on the fish. With mollys, and other live bearer I'd be trying to increase my water hardness.
As far as decreasing kH the easiest way to cut your water with distilled water. If you are targeting 60 ppm you'll want half your tap, and half distilled. Just remember to go slow. Few things are worse than rapid change in water chemistry. Also realize that using distilled water by itself is really bad. Also the distilled water will effect your pH, and low kH means you will experience faster/easier pH shifts.
PS- liveaquaria.com is a great place to look at the requirements of fish. Personally I recommend get fish based on your water rather than attempting to change your water.
2006-11-06 08:04:07 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Are you adding anything to raise the pH of the water, like sodium bicarbonate or sodium carbonate? Do you have any rocks in the tank? If there is any concrete or limestone in the tank, it will leach carbonate, which will raise the pH and the alkalinity. If this is the case, replace the rocks with a silica-based gravel. It is difficult to lower alkalinity, you cannot do it simply by lowering pH. Water changes can help, but you will have to let it ride and lower by itself.
Another possibility is that you have too much carbon dioxide in the tank. Adding an airstone will help decrease CO2, and increase Oxygen.
2006-11-09 19:24:36 · answer #2 · answered by hd_nd03 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Alkalinity is one of the possibilities of pH. The other is acidic. Neutral is 7.0. Fish cannot live in water that is over 10.0 or under 4.0. Only specialized fish can live in the extreme ranges.
I don't know what you are measuring, but it is not the pH.
Email me and I will try to help you. Don't forget to put your email address into the site two times so I can email you back. Lots of people don't do it the second time.
2006-11-06 15:53:49 · answer #3 · answered by 8 In the corner 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋