How do I lower the PH in my fish tank?

Question

I just bought a 35 gallon fish tank and I am trying to get everything perfect before I put the fish in. It is a freshwater tropical tank. I read I should try and get it to 7.0, but the PH has continued to stay at 7.6 after numerous times of adding PH down (We've been doing that for 2 days.) What should I do to lower it???

*I plan to add mosty barbs and tetras.

Answer 1

I suspect you have a high kH (carbonate hardness) which makes it very hard to change the pH. I recommend not trying to change your water to suit your fish, but to buy fish to suit your water. Other wise you will be constantly fighting with it as you change the water.

Barbs, and Tetras are softwater fish and even if you change the pH will not do as well in your tap water. I'd recommend live bearers (platty, molly, swordtail, guppy), or gouramis as they will love the pH, and the hardness.

PS- Pure distilled water is horrible for fish. It lacks minerals. Never use more than 50% distilled water. In your case if I was trying to change the pH. I'd remove 25-50% of your water, and replace it with distilled water. This will soften the water, and likely reduce the pH. Just remember always use the same measure of tap, and distilled water. Most fish will adjust to a higher pH, but don't do well with rapid change.

Answer 2

your ph is fine don't worry about it. A lot of people go on and on about getting the ph perfect. This is actually more harmful to the fish than having it a little off and leaving it alone. if your ph was like 8 or 9 or something then yes treat it but 7.6 trying to get the ph to 7.0 would be too much doctoring for the fish and they would be stressed out. Freshwater fish can take a lot more than most people give them credit.

Answer 3

I think a complete cycling of the biological filter is much more important than tinkering with your water's pH.

In my community, the water in most of the pet stores' aquariums is the same pH as my tap water. My current tetras have always been at 7.5. I think most breeders and shops assume you will not tinker with pH and want to make it easier for you.

While you are floating your bag of fish, add about a half a cup of your aquarium water to the bag every five minutes or so. Then carefully pour the water into a bucket (don't pour out the fish, too) and repeat a couple of times. Do it for about half an hour.

Answer 4

It's a lot harder to lower pH than it is to increase it. 7.6 is fine for most fish, and it's fine for barbs and tetras (however, be careful about putting barbs in with tetras - except for cherry barbs, they are very, very nippy fish.) A slightly off pH is better for a fish than fluctuating pH.

The reason that "pH down" doesn't work, is that your water has a buffering capacity. Other than pH, there is carbonate hardness (kH) and general hardness (GH). The higher your carbonate hardness, the more difficult it will be to lower the pH, because the pH will just go right back to where it was due to the buffering capacity.

Like I said, 7.6 is really quite acceptable for most common freshwater tropical fish.

However, to answer your question, peat moss will help lower pH. You can put peat moss under your gravel or in your filter unit, and the water will run through it and the pH will lower. However, when you do a water change, the pH will increase (unless the new water was soaking peat moss).
Also, certain tank decor will increase pH, such as texas holey rock, crushed coral substrate, dead coral, shells... Whereas a large piece of driftwood will help to lower the pH.
Another solution is simply to buy Reverse Osmosis / Distilled (RO/D) water, or to install a RO unit to your tap water.

http://www.fishforums.com

Answer 5

7.6 is perfectly ok for most freshwater fishes, I have three tanks that stays between 6.5 to 7.8 and all the fishes are happy in there, you can put your fishes in without hesitation, and make a 20% water change on the 4th and 7th day after putting the fishes, that would certainly bring down your ph at level 7.

Answer 6

Keep at it as it typically takes 5-7 days to get everything stabilized.. Sometimes the decorations in a tank can cause the pH to stay high until it is all neutralized. It took us about 2 weeks after we moved before we could get the fish back in the tank with the new decorations. They were not happy in the 5 gallon bucket!! It is worth the wait to not kill the fish.

Answer 7

I agree. don't try and lower it. Those fish will be fine at 7.6.

What you ought to do is a fishless cycle to get your biofilter bacteria up to speed BEFORE you add fish to the tank.
http://thegab.org/Articles/FishlessCycling.html

Answer 8

Adding CO2 will lower the pH. Also if you mix distilled water with tap water then it will soften the water and lower the pH

Answer 9

You need to go to any pet store and by PH stabilizers. You just put the amount that the bottle recommends and it should lower your PH level to normal.

Answer 10

7.6 is fine, one of the most dangerous things is continually changing the ph.