unclenedsfishfactory.com

Hi There,

I was wondering if anyone had any experience lowering the pH for MWRA water (I live in Winthrop), which comes out of the tap with an artificially high pH (around 8.5) despite a low hardness (3 kh).

I'm relatively sure that given time, the pH goes down on its own due to the low hardness...but I'm in the process of starting a freshly cycled 76-gallon tank and a couple of the fish I have in here seem to be suffing a bit, despite zero amonia/nitrite readings. The pH is just staying up around 9 even though the hardness measures pretty low.

I'm thinking about using a "pH down" product to get the pH down to the range it really should be anyway...but I'm dubious of these products.

Anyone have any advice?

Thanks,
Jason

i would recommend against it. with your kH level it isnt stable enough and a crash in pH could happen. maybe get some peat moss to lower it naturally.

I should say that MWRA water isn't a problem in my mature/established tanks...which have a nice low-ish pH of around 6.8. The problem is that the new 75-gallon doesn't have the drift wood, plant matter, and other stuff in there to naturally bring the pH down. So it just stays stuck up high.

What I'm looking for is how to bring down the pH of water prior to doing a water change.

Our pH in the store is around 7.8 but always stays there.
We have had good luck with the "proper pH" products from
Aquarium Pharmeceuticals Company.
If you are reading 9.0 you might want to check that you are not even higher than that
(even cichlids start dying from alkalosis around 11 or 12).
Also: call your local public works dept, they're supposed to keep records monthly on what they put in the water & what the readings are.
The problem seems to be that they are supposed to read pH 8.0 at the last address, so the guy right next to the water pumping station gets an overdose.
Tetra Company makes a wide range kit that reads 5.0 - 10.0, ranges beyond that you might need an electronic pen.