Tropical Fish Forums

[TJ14]

Hello all,
So, right now, I have a twenty eight gallon freshwater set up. My tap water's pH is pretty high (7.9),mand my fish, though hardy, prefer acidic water, so I would like to change my pH. Over the last week, I've been putting in quite a bit of tetra correct pH 7.0 to change the water, but it won't change because of the buffers. Now, I'd rather not buy a tap water unit to remove the buffers, so what can I do? I was thinking maybe I could remove my fish and filter pads (so as not to shock the organisms), and then load the water with the correct pH tabs until I overcome the buffers. Then, when I change the water, I'll add tabs to keep the pH at what the tank's is. Is this plausible? If there's a much better way, I'd love to hear it

[diademhill]

A better way is to leave the tank water as it is. The tablets and buffers cause pH swings and are more to fool pH tests than to help the fish.

If you have wild caught Amazon species you can mix RO with tapwater but you have to premix this for each & every water change.