Ramie Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 Who here has mixed distilled with tap to lower pH and/or soften water. What was your experience? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starsman20 Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 I have been trying this with RO water at the suggestion of my LFS. Before i was mixing equilibrium, acid buffer, and alkaline buffer into RO water to get what I wanted (and still never got it exactly right). PH out of the faucet is 8.3 and to get a mix down to 7.8 range it's something like 9 parts RO to 1 part tap. Also I treat the tap water before mixing with stress coat. Not fully decided if this is easier than mixing the seachem stuff yet. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 I just did this a couple of hours ago in three aquariums. Brought the pH from 8 something to 7 something. The graph represents about 24 hours of time and a 30% water change on each aquarium. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Dyer Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 Eco = Eco Complete? Dirt I am assuming is dirt 😉 and Nerm? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 4 minutes ago, Ken Dyer said: Eco = Eco Complete? Dirt I am assuming is dirt 😉 and Nerm? Correct, Correct and Nermal is regular quartzite substrate with root tabs for fertilizer. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starsman20 Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 Is the second spike the water change? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 22 minutes ago, starsman20 said: Is the second spike the water change? The 2 spikes are the pH beginning to rise in morning as the plants begin to photosynthesize and consume all the CO2. As the CO2 drops the pH spikes. When it is dark the plants give off CO2 and the pH drops. Then near noon today I did a water change and the pH drops dramatically. And on the EcoComplete tank, I had only completed about 80% of the water change when I had to go away for a couple hours, so the dropping stopped for a bit. I just got back, finished the water change and it dropped a little more as a result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starsman20 Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 Maybe I have been over complicating this. You have almost an entire ph unit swing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starsman20 Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 Are there CO2 injectors on the tanks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 No CO2. Each tank is a 40 breeder with a heater and sponge filter and same plants in same layout. The only thing that is different is the substrate. In my experience healthy fish in good water can take wild swings in temperature and pH and not bat an eye. When the pH was 8.2 they ate voraciously out of my hand and were perky. When the pH was 7.2 a half hour later they at voraciously and were perky. If I had dropped the pH to 6.8 it wouldn't have mattered to them. Was the pH measured correctly? All three probes were calibrated recently and give correct readings in 4.0 and 7.0 buffers. And the probe readings match the pH readings on Tetra strips and also the API liquid tests I do each afternoon. And if that wasn't enough I also have a Seneye in each tank and its readings also agree. The reason I am over-measuring is I am watching the evolution of these three tanks to see what the differences and similarities are on a day by day basis. It might not yield any results or it might. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maggie Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 2 hours ago, Daniel said: I just did this a couple of hours ago in three aquariums. Brought the pH from 8 something to 7 something. The graph represents about 24 hours of time and a 30% water change on each aquarium. Nerm 7.41, LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starsman20 Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 Its a great test. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramie Posted November 12, 2020 Author Share Posted November 12, 2020 This is all very informative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben_RF Posted November 12, 2020 Share Posted November 12, 2020 I mixed for a few years with no issue. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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