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PH question?

Cookie_apisto

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123
My LFS told me to lower the PH and the hardness for my apisto macmasteri so they can have better color and also for them to breed if I want. Should I do that? I got a RO unit which I can softer the water slowly but I want to hear some advise from the expert like you guys first! My tank ph is 7.8 and kh 5 from my tap now.
 

Mike Wise

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Personally I think your dKH is fine for macs, which are more adaptable to water hardness than many apistos. If you can lower the pH to just below neutral it would be much better.
 

Cookie_apisto

Member
Messages
123
Personally I think your dKH is fine for macs, which are more adaptable to water hardness than many apistos. If you can lower the pH to just below neutral it would be much better.

Can they adapt kh below 5? If I lower the ph below nrutral then kh gonna drop too
 

Mike Wise

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Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
5° dKH is ~85 ppm TDS which isn't really that hard. You should be able to lower the pH with peat. Yes, it probably will lower the hardness somewhat, but for macs it isn't that important.
 

Cookie_apisto

Member
Messages
123
The ph of just RO water is 6 so I going mix ro with tap and then soak the wster with almond leaves in the bucket so i can control the ph easier and tint the water a bit.
 

dw1305

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Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
Can they adapt kh below 5? If I lower the ph below nrutral then kh gonna drop too
A lot of the water in S. America doesn't have any carbonate buffering (dKH). Not every-one will agree but I don't worry too much about pH in soft water planted tanks, it can never be stable.

cheers Darrel
 

Cookie_apisto

Member
Messages
123
By the way I just put a large piece of spider driftwood in my tank but before that I didnt boil or cure it in a bucket with wAter so it started to growing some white stuff on it. I know thats going to happen but one of my sterbai cory is eating it so I dont know if that ssfe for them to eat.
 

Cookie_apisto

Member
Messages
123
It's eating a fungus growing on the wood. It's sort of like people who eat fungi: mushrooms good; toadstools bad. Personally I've never had a fish die from grazing on fungus on wood - that I know was the cause anyway.

Just took the wood out for cleaning but the white started to come back again. I guess I have clean it again lster lol
 

Mike Wise

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Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
Black volcanic rocks are usually basaltic rocks. These don't normally have carbonates in them, so should be OK. Just test it by putting it in water (preferably very soft) for a week and see if it changes the pH.
 

gerald

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Location
Wake Forest NC, USA
Also measure the conductivity - i think that will be a better indicator of ions dissolving out of the rock. pH measurement might change due to other factors that have nothing to do with the rock.
 

Cookie_apisto

Member
Messages
123
Yes I am going to messure the ph after I dump the rock into ro water for a week but I am not sure if I can test the conductivity. I will try my best.
 

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