Lowering PH

[Tilly]

Will adding leaf litter to the aqaurium lower the PH? How about rain water?

Thanks
Bob

[Mike Wise]

How much the pH of water can be lowered depends on the buffering capacity of the water. Water with low carbonate hardness (KH) typically is easier to lower. If you have soft tap water, leaf litter composed of tree species that originate in acidic areas (oaks, beach) will lower the pH some. Sphagnum peat is more effective, however. If you have hard water, it is best to soften it with rainwater/distilled water/or reverse osmosis water first.

[Tilly]

I have hard water (190 ppm), the PH is 7.6 / 7.8 out of the tap. I want to raise and breed apistogramma. I had luck with angels by lowering the PH to 7.0 but it took alot of PH down chemicals. I was looking for something more natural, plus apistos will like the leaf litter to hide in.

How much will rain water should be used? 50/50 mixture
How often do I use the rain water? When ever I do a water change, or just monitor the water and add rain water when needed.

[Tilly]

How would you go about using sphagnum moss, by using in in a power filter of some sort? Should I lower the PH first or can I do it slowly when the fish are in the tank?

Thanks
Bob

[Mike Wise]

In theory, rainwater has no or almost no hardness. Therefore if you mix your tap water 50/50 with rainwater you will decrease the KH by half or to around 95 ppm. For most apistos, this is sufficient for breeding purposes. For those from truly blackwater biotopes, you will need to get it to about half of this (<50 ppm/3°dKH). It should be easy to lower the pH to below 5.5 with peat and probably below 6.0 with oak/beach leaves. The trick is to keep the pH from dropping too low, too fast. I prefer to mix my peat filtered water with tap water at the proper ratio in a separate vat & check the pH before adding it to the aquarium with each water change. The only way to keep the hardness low is to replace water from water changes with a mixture of tap & rainwater of the correct ratio. I have naturally soft water (<50µS/cm; roughly 25 ppm), but I filter water through sphagnum peat to lower the hardness and pH for some of my very picky apistos. You can use any method that pumps water through the peat. Just check to make sure it is not too acid before adding it to your tank.◄