ph in new tank too high

[salt creepette]

i used tap water to fill the 55 gallon tank that I am going to upgrade my 30gallon planted tank into. i used citric acid to lower the ph to 7.0 and added turbo start and a swordfish pair and a betta. (theres a heater and airstone in the tank now). i tested the ph the next day and it is up to 7.8. how should I go about lowering the ph to 7.0 again before i transfer the rest of the fish and plants over? will the ph just climb back up again?

I did notice the tendency of the ph in the 30 gallon to lower to 6.0 despite using 7.0 water for weekly water changes. is it because there are a lot of fish in there? (2 rainbowfish, 7 loaches, 4 otocinclus)

[Stang69]

I would start with maybe some ph down or some Peat to lower the ph. There is always the option of driftwood. I have found that bogwood and driftwood works well at keeping the ph down where it is acceptable for plants and some of the lower ph fish




HTH


www.aquariumdriftwood.com


Cant say enuff about them


Jeff

[salt creepette]

i did put one small piece of driftwood from the 30 gallon into the 55 gallon; I guess I could put more. speaking of which, I am stupefied at my inability to make the connection between the three pieces of driftwood in the 30 gallon and the low ph. Can you tell I am new to planted aquaria?! I did buy some seachem buffer to get the ph down and did one dose of that in the 55, although since there will be driftwood I will probably hold off on the buffer since the wood did such a good job of lowering the ph in the 30 gallon. Is a ph of 6.0 anything to worry about though? that seems awfully low.

[Stang69]

Originally Posted by salt creepette

I am stupefied at my inability to make the connection between the three pieces of driftwood in the 30 gallon and the low ph. Can you tell I am new to planted aquaria?!

Well to be honest as far as explaining it I cant just know it works im sure there is a chemical reason but.............

[Stang69]

Originally Posted by salt creepette

Is a ph of 6.0 anything to worry about though? that seems awfully low.

Long as the fish are aclimated to it I dont see a problem with the stock ya have in there.

[Phishnoob]

ack..we are supposed to test the water in a FW tank?

[salt creepette]

stang, i wasnt asking you to explain why the driftwood lowers the ph. my comment was referring to the fact that I KNEW (or, at one point I knew but then I forgot) that driftwood lowers ph and yet I didnt make the connection in my brain as to why the ph in my tank was so low (I was making fun of myself)