# pH question for new tank (mixing well water with ro)



## neddy191 (Mar 26, 2011)

I set up a new 20g tank about 6 weeks ago. Cycled it with a few serpae tetras who did great and are now thriving. I've since added 4 peppered cory cats and a few more tetras (now 7 total). The guy at the LFS recommended Blue Rams to add a little interest so we put 2 in there. All these guys have been together for nearly 2 weeks and I really like the tank. My question is about water.

I'm on well water and use tap for tank water. The gravel and substrate are inert and shouldn't buffer the pH at all. The pH in the tank is around 7.8 to 8.0 - the reading I've done about all the fish I have in there is they they prefer a much lower pH around 7.0 or a little under.

I have an ro/di system so I have easy access to ro water. How should I go about using it to get the pH lower? 

My idea is to find a ratio of tap/ro that gives me desired lower pH and just use that as my partial water change water once or twice a week when I do water changes. 

Thanks for any advice


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## lbj (Mar 11, 2011)

Have a look at this thread: http://www.aquariumforum.com/f66/mixing-ro-tap-water-12924.html

In my testing, a 1:1 mixture of RO and tap barely lowered the pH. In jrman's experience a 1:1 mixture pretty much split the difference. I asked my dad, a retired lab scientist, about this, and he said it depends on the pH buffering of the water. I may be paraphrasing (and misremembering) a bit, but there is some amount of sodium bicarb in water that stabilizes pH and prevents it from deviating very much or very quickly. In my case, I have a lot of sodium bicarbonate in my tap so a lot acid is required to lower pH.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

I would say that if the fish have made it this long and they haven't had any issues, then leave it alone. It's usually when you start to play around with ph that you have troubles.

Every fish I own nearly is in tanks that are not in their preferred range, but they live fine.


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## theguppyman (Jan 10, 2010)

If you want to acidify the water, many pet stores sell a liquid that lowers the Ph called black water extract, You can make some by boiling dry oak or breech leaves which will leave the water tea colored, or you can just add the leaves (oak,breech,IAL) just make sure they are dry, or as a last alternative you can just add bog wood, but you have to be careful as it might lower too much your Ph, The source of the Ph lowering is the tannin acids, the only way to have low Ph and clear water is to have carbon in your filter, In my cardinal tetra biotope the Ph is 5.5 and the water is very black, Don't be alarmed as I live in Brazil so onces a year we go to the amazon on a fishing trip, so I have seen the cardinals natural habitat it the Ph I have seen their was 3.8, now thats low


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## NeonShark666 (Dec 13, 2010)

Well water almost always has a high ph. Fishes that like your kind of water include Livebearers, Rainbows, Rift Valley Cichlids and Brackish Water fishes. Fishes from South America and West Africa don't. You can safely lower you ph if you want to by using RO or Distilled water when you make water changes. Decide what kind of fish you want to keep and aim at the type of water those fish want. Remember you water has a high ph because it has a lot of minerals in it so replace water lost with RO or Distilled water.


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## swampcat874 (Dec 12, 2010)

jrman83 said:


> I would say that if the fish have made it this long and they haven't had any issues, then leave it alone. It's usually when you start to play around with ph that you have troubles.
> 
> Every fish I own nearly is in tanks that are not in their preferred range, but they live fine.


I Agree


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