ph help

[ziku1]

my area water ph in sydney is around 7.5
i want to keep discus and want to know how i can reduce the ph without purchasing expensive chemicals all the time (ph down)

[G-1000]

discus will be fine in 7.5 pH.

You only need to worry about lowering that when you are trying to breed them.

G

[Robdog]

Don't let Brilliant hear you say that G!

[Nathan]

you can use peat moss, that brings down your ph an soften your water, but as g said 7.5 shouldnt be to much of a problem, but as he said if u r wantin to get into breeding it will need to be lowered.

hope this helps

[ziku1]

im just going to get some juveniles say 2-3 cm
if i use water with ph of 7.5 will this stunt their growth

[lovenotthrowdiscus]

correct me if im wrong but with higher Ph levels aren't dicsus alot more
at risk to disease due to higher levels of bacteria???

dr.V has some helpful ways of using peat moss in your filter if you wish to learn the know how from him.
just PM him im sure he would'nt mind?

[Nathan]

the lower the ph levels the harder it is for bacteria to grow an live in, so u r correct rory.

however in ph of 7.5 i dnt think youl find much of a bacteria level difference to say a ph of 7.

another way of maintin a lower ph is with chemicals, dependin on how big your tank is (how many litres) another way is to buy ph neutriliser which keeps your ph at 7 an to buy some kh generator which most ppl on this forum use to buffer the kh so that you dont need as much of the ph neutriliser, but u should check the gh (general hardness) and kh (carbonate hardness) of your water as u may find this is not suitable either, if so id definitely look into peat moss or not bother at all with discus an go cichlid

HTH

[Dee]

Hi,

Personaly I would stick with the PH of 7.5 and not mess with your water mate. Clean foods, Q procedure and healthy husbandry will help avoid disease issues, maybe install a UV if your concerned enough.

IMO 7.5 is perfectly fine for grow out tanks (domestics) and once you get into breeding you can start to think about playing with water chemistry. Thats just my opinion, life will be alot easier without tweaking water parameters, things like Ammonia etc would be more of a concern for me.

Cheers,

Dee

[samir]

sydney water is very soft and your ph should go down to about 6.5 in a few days. mine comes out at 7.5-8 and settles down at about 6.5 without anything added. i find peat only works well with smaller volumes of water.

[Nathan]

id definitely be purchasing a uv sterliser