# Safe/alternate way to lower PH?



## Peter 3.0L (Apr 22, 2010)

I am having a hard time keeping the PH in my 60g planted below 7.0. Any other methods besides PH down? I have tried this and it doesn't help.

My 130g is fine but it has diferent substrate and a lot more wood. The 60g is the only tank i am having this problem with.. Substrate is Eco complete and that's pretty much all I have in the aquarium besides a small piece of driftwood.
It is moderately-heavily planted, not running co2 yet but am planning on picking up a setup from Roger this weekend. What can I do to get my PH down? Currently sitting at between 7.2-7.4..

Cheers, Peter


----------



## Algae Beater (Apr 21, 2010)

when you run a planted tank without CO2 the plants will cause a rise in pH for a few reasons, without getting too technical, do not stress a slight elevation in pH. what are your other water parameters such as GH, KH, how much light ? these are much more pertinent issues in a planted tank. 

all im saying is dont stress out about a pH reading like that if you are getting a setup this weekend.


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

various hardwood dried leaves, like indian almond leaves added to the water, also adding a bag of peat in your filter will help


----------



## Peter 3.0L (Apr 22, 2010)

My lighting consists of 4 39W T5HO's but my light setup has separate switches for the two banks of lights. I have all four on for 8 hours then shut one bank off for the last few hours of the "day". I live in maple ridge so I am guessing the water out here is a little harder. KH is at 20mg/L and GH test results are telling me that my water is very hard.


----------



## Algae Beater (Apr 21, 2010)

you must be on well water then ? 

Coquitlam reservoir's water is extremely soft, the additional hardness is likely responsible for your elevated pH. as Neven suggested add some hardwood leave or some wood .. all will leach tannins that will soften your water. the addition of CO2 will likely solve your issues.


----------



## Peter 3.0L (Apr 22, 2010)

I'm guessing so.. I used to live in Coquitlam just moved out here last october so these issues have never been present in any of my tanks. Thanks a lot for the help and info thus far I'll update once my co2 is setup and running!


----------



## Ebonbolt (Aug 12, 2011)

Why bother lowering the pH at all? Unless you have some very sensitive wild caught fish that require you to match the tank to their natural habitats, you'd be better off just keeping the parameters stable, especially if your fish are tank bred.


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

just to pipe in as to why trying to lower ph, often times when you have a lower ph with common community tank species from south america or certain river species, they will exhibit spawning behaviour and have much more character. If i try to keep my PH at 6.5 or under, topping up the tank with cold water causes the fish to start spawning.


----------



## bigfry (Apr 21, 2010)

Your addition of CO2 will lower the pH reading without making other changes to your tank.

Please update once its setup.


----------



## Peter 3.0L (Apr 22, 2010)

I was more concerned about the requirements of the plants. Do they not prefer a more acidic water?


----------



## jobber (May 14, 2010)

I'm not a plant expert but perhaps take a look at the Ph range requirements for the type of plants that you want. Maybe some plants can survive in acidic water. 

Sent from Samsung Mobile via Tapatalk


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

many of the harder to keep plants require a more acidic water or substrate to grow


----------



## Ebonbolt (Aug 12, 2011)

What species of plants? I have java ferns, anubias, cryptocoryne, valisneria, elodia, aponogeton, cabomba, water wisteria and amazon swords in water with pH of ~7.5; they're all doing great, and the pH doesn't affect them one bit.


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

some plants off the top of my hand
Several tonina varieties
crypt nurii
Eriocaulon varieties

most people with these plants use ADA or some sort of equivalent, but you can grow them fine in just gravel if the substrate doesn't compact and you have a low PH. CO2 alone often will put you just in the range of the plants, but often it needs a little help from some tanins to drop it a bit lower here. ADA or peat laced substrates do that for us  Because of these needs, the plants are often labeled difficult, despite the ease to grow them if you just happen to have the right substrate.

without an acidic substrate, i got tonina to grow, but crypt nurii and eriocaulon still haven't done well, hoping almond leaves would help, but i may need to inject peat ice cubes into the substrate


----------



## Ursus sapien (Apr 21, 2010)

to echo neven, use hardwood leaves (oak, maple etc, check out the 'leaves thread' for complete discussion), peat tea bags, and wood, a nice healthy chunk of wood.


----------



## Peter 3.0L (Apr 22, 2010)

Updated...So as I was told by some of you that once I add my co2 the PH will drop. I have had the co2 setup now for 3 days running 1.5-2 bubbles a second at my defuser bubble counter but the bubble counter on the regulator is showing 1 bubble/ second. The PH is holding steady at 7.0 now witch I'm my opinion is perfect. 

I am dosing the tank with flourish and flourish excel as well.

This is my first advanced planted tank so I appreciate the feedback and helpful tips.


----------



## Ebonbolt (Aug 12, 2011)

Excel AND CO2 is a bit excessive isn't it? I think one or the other would suffice; both is just a waste of money and resources IMO.


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

Using both helps if you have an inconsistent means of delivering co2, like a single bottle of diy sort of set up. Its used as a secondary source of carbon, but mainly as an algaecide in this circumstance. if you dial in a high concentration of co2, you'll notice those algaes wont happen any more (i keep my tanks at roughly 35-40 ppm), then its a waste to use excel/metricide.


----------



## Peter 3.0L (Apr 22, 2010)

Not dosing with excel regularly just once in a while. Dosing flourish is fine tho? Once a week or so as recommended?


----------



## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

I have herd that if you dont dose excel every couple of days than it disolves( if thats the right word) in between dosing. So your levels will be up and down constantly. By the sounds of it you bought a presurized CO2 system so dosing excel probably isnt needed. Basically excel is liquid CO2. Keep doing what you are doing if you think it works. Thats how you learn things.


----------



## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

I just read the label on an excel bottle. Its says it works well with CO2. I was under the impression is was basically liquid CO2. Guess I was wrong. I inject C02 but dont use excel and my plants do great. 

Now Im curious. What are most members doing? Are you guys dosing excel and injecting CO2? or just injecting CO2?


----------

