water ph

My water ph straight out of the tap is 7.4-7.5 how do i lower it I have ph minus but is there a long term solution that is best.

What ph level should i be looking at was thinking of keeping some guppies and mollies and some other compatible fish

I had read they like between 7.0 and 7.8 so i taught i was ok but i was in seahorse and the woman there said it was too high since it was my first time in the place and i have no idea what i'm doing i didn't argue

You could try rainwater, that would be near neutral PH and should be softer too.
I thawed some ice during the cold snap which brought mine down while it lasted.
There is definitely others who keep fish which require soft acidic water, so they could give you a few tips on what they do.
I agree with John that your tapwater PH is more suited to Livebearers (mollies&guppies),
its also prob why alot are keeping African Cichlids
and Central American cichlids.
The other confusion is Alkaline water which is generally harder
and Acidic water which would be softer.
I think the Fish stores use neutral water to accommadate their freshwater stock ?

dont tamper with it, it is grand. 7.5 out of the tap?, does the ph drop after a day or two in the tank?

If you measure the pH 'straight from tap' then it shouldn't really be literally straight from the tap.
You should run a small sample, aerate it and let it stand, and bring it to the temperature of your fish tank before measuring it as straight from the tap.

Water straight from the tap is not always stable (depends on alkalinity and other things as to how stable the pH as it pours). Temperature affects pH.....so the pH of cold water will be different to the pH of the same water in a heated tank.

As for a pH of 7.5...for guppies....as JohnH said, its fine and better than messing around with it.

ian

now that you have some answers i will also mention that bog wood can reduce the ph, although i think this needs investigation as i am not sure how much would be needed to drop the ph even by .5 anyone any info on this? for further reference if you ever need to drop it for fish that require softer water you could look into the introduction of peat, (wats them leaves called lads i am tempted to say "almond leaves" but it is too early and i'm only on my second cup of coffee)

i will also say use the search bar, there is some fantastic reads to be found and a lot detailed (head scratching) answers by Ian.

on that note (and sorry for the slight hijack) Ian would you be able (if you find the time) to write up a detailed thread? and maybe John could make it an article.

Yup it's almond leaf. Supposed to lower it. Something about leaving rotting vegetation in my tank doesn't seem right though.
You can get the extract, "blackwater Extract" is the name of the bottle, and without wanting to start a huge debate on it (I know we all love a good debate here but this has been done a few times from what I've read) all it does is muddy the water and doesn't effect PH whatsoever. So if like me, you like your water crystal clear, stay away from it.

As for bog wood, I'm guessing you need most of the 80 foot tree. I have a huge chunk in my tank as my PH is 7.6 out of the tap and I got it hoping to lower it a bit and it's done nada. Got it straight out of a pet shop's tank cos he had none left on the shelf so was well soaked but wasn't passed it's sell by either

Dar, I think that the almond leaves you mentioned are ketapang leaves which have the shape of almonds. By the way almond leaves name suits me better and is easier to remember.

CO2 can also reduce pH level in a tank. I used to have pH between 7.4 - 7.6 but since I started to use CO2 system it is 6.8

@Dar...I have plans, and half a page of scribbled lines (well a bit more than that....I have my unfinished book on water chemistry from the 80s) , on this hanging around Dar.

The main problem isn't just putting the answers down, it is the fact that there needs to be different levels of context.....ie so that different people can take whatever they want from such a piece.
Some people want to know the ins-and-outs, and others may just want to know how to do something.

Anyway....that is for the future, now back to the topic

Bog-wood....it is a hit and miss affair. The level it will drop pH depends on the content of the wood, and on the pH buffering within the tank.
But, even if a noticeable drop in pH is not observed, the bog wood will be putting some acids into the water and will defo be having some effect.

For me, there is much more to good quality water than pH.....pH is, however, a good measure to indicate that either something is wrong OR that something that should happen will not happen.

How much acid?
a fish tank's water is very complex and so it is almost impossible to do a theoretical account of how much 'this or that' will drop the pH.
A pH drop of 0.3 indicates that the amount of free acid has increased 2 times; a pH drop of 1 indicates that free acid is 10 times as concentrated as it was before.

But that does not mean that 10 times as much acid has been added, and adding 10 times as much acid will not necessarily drop the pH by one unit.

eg if we have x amount of acetic acid in pure water to give a pH of 6.6, then to increase the amount of free acid by 10 to get a pH drop to pH 5.6 we would need to add 1000 times the amount of acetic acid
(eg if 6 grams gives you a pH of 6.6, then 6 Kilogram will give you a pH of 5.6 in the same body of pure water....about 100,000 litres). {I hope my mental arithmetic is correct there }
If the water is not pure and has buffering and other acids and bases then things get complex, and the same proportionality will not apply with different acids.

In lab conditions with pure water, it is easy to calculate and predict how much of something is needed to get a certain pH…..but not in a fish tank.

ian