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Re: KillieTalk Digest V2 #491

pH problems?

I relocated from NJ to central NM about 1.5 years ago.  In NJ my water was pH 6.8 with a hardness of 120 ppm. Here in central NM my water is pH 8.3 with a hardness of about 50 ppm.  Both were/are city water (not well water).  Since I breed the type of killifishes which prefer acid water I also tried Wardley's pH Down product.  Being a retired chemist, I should not have and wasn't surprised at the results.  Within a week or two
I had pea soup for water. Why?  Because pH Down contains Potassium Acid Phosphate.  Both potassium and phosphorus are great fertilizers!

If you want to adjust your water more reliably, go to your local hardware store and buy a gallon of Muriatic Acid. This is 50% of the strength Hydrochloric Acid that chemists use in the laboratory.  The vapors are strong and inhalation should be avoided. Commercially it is used for cleaning bricks, etc.  Avoid getting it on your cloths and skin also.

With a little bit of experimenting, one should be able to determine how much Muriatic Acid is required to bring a high pH water down to where you want it. I typically use 5 gallon paint buckets to which I add about 1 oz of salt and 5 ml of Muriatic Acid to get a pH of 6.5 .  Again, you'll have to play with your own particular local water in order to determine where you are.  In most cases, as long as you are dealing with city
water, it shouldn't vary that much throughout the year.

One last thing to keep in mind is what chemists call buffering capacity.  If your water is relatively soft, driving the pH down as discribed above may result in much lower pH than initially produced after a few weeks. So keep tabs on it.

Good Luck,

Bob in Socorro

KillieTalk Digest wrote:

> KillieTalk Digest      Tuesday, November 3 1998      Volume 02 : Number 491
>
> In this issue:
>
>         ph problems and fat fish
>
> See the end of the digest for information on unsubscribing from the
> KillieTalk mailing list and on how to retrieve back issues.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 03 Nov 1998 08:41:44 -0700
> From: "Nancy Ann Gardner" <air-wolf at mailcity_com>
> Subject: ph problems and fat fish
>
> We are trying to lower the ph in our killie tank with no success.  We do a partial water change first and have tried PH Down and Wardleys.  Now we are trying each of them in a bucket of water to see if our problem is that the chemicals themselves aren't working.  We've got one of them in our one-gallon tank which was bought originally as a hospital tank.  The other in in our molly tank tank since s/he was chasing the other.
> The lone killie has gotten rather rotund.  We think she is pregnant, but since we don't know what she is were having trouble designing a breeding tank for her.
> - ---
> YIGGGS
> Nancy Ann
> air-wolf at mailcity_com
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> End of KillieTalk Digest V2 #491
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