Getting my ph down

[chris1805]

I am trying to get my ph down but it's not really working, currently my ph is about 7.0-7.3 and my Kh is about 5.5 and working it down to about 3-4. The problem is the water from the tap is ph 8.3 with a kh of 11. I' ve got an osmose water installation which gives me water of a ph of 6.7-7 and a kh of about 0.5. The problem is i have to mix this with my tap water and i would like to get my ph down to about 6.3 and this is even lower than the osmose water. I already have 2 pieces of wood in my tank, a few oak leaves and i have peat in my filter. Does anyone have some suggestions to get my ph down?
I have a 120 liter tank with a 60x40x60 cm size.

 

[Mike Wise]

If your reverse osmosis produces water at 0.5° dKH, run the water through sphagnum peat in a separate vat. The pH should drop well below pH 6. Then you can mix this water with a little tap water until you get the pH value you want.

 

[chris1805]

thanks for that idea, i have no idea what sphagnum means but i will find out. Would putting some extra peat in my filter also work?

 

[gerald]

Sphagnum is the name of the moss that creates the peat in bogs when it dies. However "peat" is also used to describe partially decomposed leaves of other plants too, so "peat" that you buy in a garden supply shop may or may not be Sphagnum peat depending on where it was harvested.

 

[Mike Wise]

Some people put peat in their filters. I do not. It is much harder to control water values this way. You are just playing chemistry set with a tank full of fish.

 

[Mol_PMB]

I agree with Mike - I filter the water through peat before it goes in the tank. It's very quick to test the new water for pH and TDS to make sure it's not going to be a shock to the fish.

 

[themountain]

Same here..I have a "peat cannon" and mix my water with carbon filtered tap water. Way more controllable

 

[chris1805]

Sorry for my late reaction forgot about the post was kinda busy with my university but okay, Already filtering with peat in it, and it's good to control so far. I won't put in some more peat than, what kh is acceptable? I hear people with a kh of about 0 but that's really unstable right? I have my kh at 3 at the moment.

 

[Mol_PMB]

I run with a KH of nearly zero: blackwater fish seem fine with that.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

what kh is acceptable? I hear people with a kh of about 0 but that's really unstable right? I have my kh at 3 at the moment.

If you mean pH becomes unstable? You can largely ignore pH variations in very soft water. Unless you want to breed extreme black water species 3 dKH should be fine.

If you have a TDS meter you can just cut your RO with tap to give you ~50 microS. (~30ppm TDS). If you have fish that need softer water to breed as the others have said you can just use pure RO filtered through sphagnum peat.

Have a look at: <"RO water open to debate....."> & <"Another peat filtration question">.

cheers Darrel