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Does anyone who has bred Zebras used Phosphate Buffers such as Waterlife's PH6.5 etc.

I ask as a friend of mine (who doesn't have an internet connection) is looking to use it as his water is quite high is PH.

My tap water varies quite a bit with regards to Phosphates especially after rain with run off.

Many thanks
Al

I use an RO filter now so phosphates aren't a problem anymore... but my tapwater was a different matter. They were off the scale with my test kit. In those days, I used a PhosZorb sachet. It doesn't look great... a bit like a giant tea bag hanging in your tank... but it did bring the phosphate level down. And when it's saturated, you can take it out and "re-charge" it by leaving it overnight in a salt solution.

hi alevans ive used waterlife 6.5 buffer not for my zebs but in another tank jut after it hade cycled (5 weeks ish) however the ph was 7-7.5 . i added the buffer and it brought the ph down great it works - NOT
after a only a few days i hade white powder crystals all over the tank / stat and most importantly the filter it was struggling stripped it out and all over the media were the same powder cystals give everything a good clean and 3-4 days later the tank seem'd to be ok.
the buffer was mixed correctly and added and it still was'nt good. hence the buffer went in the bin
this is only my opion, just thought id let you now i was lucky i removed the fish ( widow tetras) b4 i added the buffer-hell if the zebs were in thier

Many thanks - I'll pass it on!

I use SeaChem Discus Buffer (recommended to me by my lfs). They tell me that it has extra nutrients that the zebra plecos will like.

Our city tap water is a ph of 8.5 and I buffer my tank water to 6.2 or so. I use in cycling my 50g and also in the .5g I have my zebra pleco. Also I try to treat and buffer a vat or lots of large bottles of water before I do a water change. Gives the water a chance to release any possible chemicals overnight and allows the buffer to dissolve fully. This would be hard to do if your changing more than 20 gallons at one time.

I had problems with Warden's ph buffer. It also caused white crystals to develop in another tank that I had to break down and get rid of all the crystals and restart the cycle of the tank. There was so many floating around that I wasn't sure if it was safe for the fish, because they would think they were food and try to eat it.

OK... I'm confused now. Is this a question about phosphates or pH?

I might be wrong but I think he means Gh.

and if your Gh is too high (round my way it's 21!) when you use a Ph buffer it'll bounce right back as mine does. I used to use an equivalent product and the same thing happened, a white crust everywhere especially in the filter. You'll need to lower the Gh and Kh first in order to keep the Ph staying at 6.5.

Best thing to do is use RO water(for me anyway), I buy mine from my lfs as I can't fit an RO unit in and then use Kent R/O right to get the desired result. Works a treat!