pH problem?

Question

We have a new aquarium. We have let the tank season (let the tank run a few days, filtering, heater on, all of that), before we added any fish. We cannot get the pH low enough. We have well water and Ive been told thats typically really alkaline, which yes it is , we bought the entire testing kit for aquariums, weve used 2 bottles of pH down, in proper intervals, trying to get it to lower. I read somewhere someone suggested that we soften our water before we even try to use it in an aquarium. Anyone else have well water or pH problems that could help us out please?

It's a 29 gallon tank, btw.

Answer 1

Let's really step back and look at this. You basically have two choices here, make the water match the fish or make the fish match the water. We'll start with the last one.

There are lots of fish that do well in hard, alkaline water. Drag out a fish book or do a little web surfing and you'll find a nice variety to pick from. No doubt you could find some thing you like. Then just care for the tank as you normally would. This is certaily the easiest thig to do.

You other choice is frankly a lot of work and much more expensive, but if you really want certain fish for the tank it may be worth it to you.

You have high pH and high hardness water. Specifically, high carbonate hardness. There are no good additives to use in your tank to lower the hardness and pH. As you hav seenpH down has little effect, that's because if the buffering of the carbonate hardness. Household water softeners that use salt are of no use to you for an aquarium. They soften the water by removing calcium from the calcium carbonate and replacing it with sodium from the salt. It still leaves the carbonates in the water.

There are two good solutions. Buy distilled water to dilute your tap water or use a reverse osmosis (RO) unit to create the water you need. The first way is cheap in the short term but expensive in the long run. It also requires you teo remember to buy the distilled water for each water change and then to mix the right amounts each time you change water. Using an RO unit is expensive up front to buy the unit, but cheaper per gallon in the long run as well as always being available without a trip to the store. It still requires you to mix the water before a water change.

Adding peat moss to the filter or the tank can lower pH a little, but as hard as your water is it wouldn't have the needed effect. If you were to dilute the water as above then use peat moss it would help to maintain the lower pH and hardness.

Obviously I would suggest the first choice unless you have your heart set on soft water fishes.

Hope this helps!

MM

Answer 2

What kind of fish do you want? Many can live to a pH of 9. Don't ever use chemicals to lower the pH. These chemicals cause big jumps and an unstable pH. It is better to have a stable pH than one that jumps, because sudden drops will be what kills the fish. If you really want fish who can't handle high pH (discus and sometimes angels and other cichlids) use driftwood in the tank or peat in the filter. You should always cycle the tank and stabalize the pH before buying fish. A few days is not enough to cycle a tank.

Answer 3

Well water can have some hard properties that make it not too suitable for use. One thing you can try, is simply use bottled water, which in the long run, can be a little expensive. For my well water, I seemed to have some luck with letting the water stand for a few hours after boiling.
Now as far as the Ph goes, a tank can take as long as 3 months depending on many issues to get settled in its Ph range. Good luck.

Answer 4

Try to limit the amount of products you put into the water, since most of the time, while it might lower the pH it will have deterimental consequences on the fish population. I've put volcanic rock and moss balls (green live balls) and they seem to lower the pH, but it took a while (carbon too, I think). I had pH at about 7.4 for the longest time, now it's at a steady 7.0. If you can't lower the pH (depending on what it is) you can select fish based on your pH. there are many alkaline loving fish out there.

cheers

Answer 5

You will never be able to lower you pH and keep it there. Adding chemicals to change it only stresses the fish. Do some research,and get fish that will thrive in your water. Life will be easier for you and your fish. Almost all of the livebearing fishes will do well in hard water as will the African Rift Lake Cichlids,but 29 gallon tank would require careful research and fish selection. There are many other species that will thrive in the water that you have. Good luck.----PeeTee

Answer 6

Empty the tank half way and fill with bottled water. You can take a CLEAN/NEW 5 gal bucket to the grocery store and fill up there. It doesn't cost that much. Do not use soften water. The salt content will really screw things up worse. BTW, What size tank?

Answer 7

Since you well is alkaline, once you get PH down to about 7.0, I would suggest using bottled water because only other alternative is to only buy fish who prefer sweet water.

Answer 8

I strongly reccomend a product that I use called Bullseye 7.0 . It is a pH neutralizer that has worked great for me. It's good for almost all types of water.