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Ways to soften water! n acidified it!

harnsheng

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5 Year Member
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can anyone tell me how to soften water,make it acid, the natural way n not using chemical?? i wanted to create an acidic n soft water tank for my agasizii cause they will breed in that particular condition,right? thanks!
 

farm41

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5 Year Member
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Location
monroe, or
Well I use RO water and oak leaves, and don't worry about the Ph. However, when I have wanted low Ph, it is very easy to lower it with peat moss.

I suggest you use the search feature to look for 'softened water' and 'peat moss'.
 

harnsheng

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5 Year Member
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45
oak leaf? im afaid i dun have it but can i use the indian almond leaf that betta breeder use to condition their fish?? it also make the water brownish!! can i use it?? n how about rain water??
 

farm41

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5 Year Member
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1,191
Location
monroe, or
Rain water is very pure, as long as you are not in some very polluted area. The oak leaves stain the water too, lot's of the apisto's are from blackwater area's.
 

harnsheng

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5 Year Member
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45
ohh ok...n...u mean i can use indian almond leaf? will it cause any problem cause its different than the oak leaf!! hope it will not cause any problem! thanks for ur reply!!
 

cdawson

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5 Year Member
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271
Location
Vancouver,BC
harnsheng said:
ohh ok...n...u mean i can use indian almond leaf? will it cause any problem cause its different than the oak leaf!! hope it will not cause any problem! thanks for ur reply!!


I use them myself, but they don't do an overly good job of softening the water. They do, but you need ALOT of them to do so. RO is the best solution, collecting rainwater is tedious, even here in vancouver it's painstaking.
 

harnsheng

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
45
ohh u use the indian almond leaf too?? i need a lot?? no worry!! the tree is just beside my house..i can collect unlimited number cause the tree is very very tall n shed a lots of leaf!! heheheehhe!!!
 

cdawson

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5 Year Member
Messages
271
Location
Vancouver,BC
farm41 said:
Only use the leaves after they have fallen to the ground and have lost all their green color.


I agree, unless they're completely brown and dried you'll kill your fish. Indian almond leaves are toxic unless they're completely dried.
 

LyreTail

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5 Year Member
Messages
87
I personally don't buy the "natural way to lower pH" arguement. What ever way you choose to lower pH using an acid , it is still really an acid, which by definition is still a chemical reaction between an acid and a base ( bicarbonate) . I do not use sodium biphosphate based pH reducers, but I do use acid based ones like Seachems " Acid buffer" I find that is works better than many other acid based pH reducers that are commercially sold. I do not like using rotting plant matter in my tanks to lower the pH. A little tannin never hurt, but rotting plant matter just increases dissolved organics in the water. I have greatly reduced the need for partial water changes just by keeping the organic load down

Before you attempt to lower the pH however, you must first get your GH and KH lower. When you have a high KH, your water will greatly resist changing the pH. I have found that lowering the GH and KH are more important than lowering the pH anyways to get them to spawn. The pH will lower automatically without much manipulation just by getting that KH lower. Without the bicarbonates buffering the water, the pH will move around rather quickly and with very little "chemicals".

My fish ( Blue Rams and Apistogramma sp. "Papagei" seem to spawn in less than 1 deg KH, 1 deg GH and a pH of about 6.5 to 7.2 with Temp slightly elevated at 82 deg F
 

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