Help with ph???

Frank

New Fish
Jun 16, 2003
3
0
0
Plano, TX
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#1
I have a 135 freshwater aquarium with about 30 different tetras. I want to put some discus in there and have been trying to get the ph down with no luck.. I put in some neutral regulator to get it to 7 and it was still at 7.8. So, I started using the discus buffer and now, after 3 treatments, its finally down to 7. I've had aquariums for a very long time and I've never had this kind of problem with the ph before. The gravel is your standard quartz from petsmart, and I don't have any rocks in there. Any help or input would be appreciated. Thanks..
 

AndyL

Large Fish
Oct 22, 2002
908
1
0
48
Calgary AB
#3
The biggest necessity of discus - is stable (and good) water quality. Trying to modify the pH will result in just the opposite.

Discus will do fine in a pH 7.8 environment.

If you're planning to grow out small discus - you'll want to ditch the gravel - I started with my discus TRYING to keep the gravel (just a thin layer). There's a reason why pretty much all discus fanatics keep bare bottom tanks - almost impossible to keep the tank reasonably clean otherwise.

Andy
 

Somonas

Superstar Fish
Oct 22, 2002
2,061
0
0
46
O-town
www.myfishtank.net
#4
Hi Frank
Filtering over peat should help lower your PH and keep it down. also it will release tannins into the water, colouring it like tea, the discus like this
you can also buy special discus water treatments, that provide nutrients and blackwater extracts for them.

If that fails or you do not want to do that the fastest way to lower PH in a tank is inject co2. Even if you do not have plants the co2 will drop the PH. {see the plant section here for howtwo's on making diy co2}