# pH



## thename123 (Dec 13, 2009)

I haven't checked my pH in over a month now and today I decided to give it a check and found my pH to be roughly 7.6, I want to drop it's pH (make it more acidic) any ideas?


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## ksimdjembe (Nov 11, 2006)

driftwood. live plants.


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## Evans11 (Aug 7, 2009)

Adding C02 will lower the PH.


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

Why do you want to lower it?


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## thename123 (Dec 13, 2009)

Chris S said:


> Why do you want to lower it?


So I can comfortably add Chocolate Lyretail Panchax Killifish to a new tank (which will be cycled)


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

they will be fine in normal tap water pH.


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## thename123 (Dec 13, 2009)

Hitch said:


> they will be fine in normal tap water pH.


really? I didn't know that, thanks


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Most people place too much emphasis on pH. Tropical fish are much more resilient than we are led to believe; rather than the "perfect" pH, aim for a stable pH.


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## thename123 (Dec 13, 2009)

Darkblade48 said:


> Most people place too much emphasis on pH. Tropical fish are much more resilient than we are led to believe; rather than the "perfect" pH, aim for a stable pH.


Thanks for the advise, I think i'm going to use it  I'm going to keep it were it is, hopefully the pH will keep stable, im going to do some periodic checks before i put the fish in there.


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## chizhevskiy (Jan 13, 2010)

You may use peat moss to lower the pH. Another way is "Red Sea" or similar substrate. For instance Red Sea stabilizes pH around 6.5 (of course, it depends of hardness of your water, which affects buffering capacity). 

The specie you are going to breed (A. australe) does not necessarily require acidic water, they survive/breeding even in extremely hard/alkaline water (for instance 500-700ppm, pH7.6). The only egg's survival/hatching rate might be very low - fish lays a lot of eggs, but 99.9% of them will be infertile. Just keep in mind that the species are coming from Tropical/Equatorial Africa (Gabon/Congo), from rain forests with soft and acidic water.


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