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hi guys,

as some of you may know im new to zebras but iv set up a tank with an aim to breed them in the future (iv booked 4 of these little guys which i will be getting once my tank is all definatley sorted) anyway..... i keep african malawi's and i know that coral is used to buffer the ph of the water but after setting up my tank a week ago iv just tested the ph of the water and its at 7.3 with nothing in there apart from tap safe, so basically i need to lower it slightly to 6.3 ish... as this is what the zebs like. whats the best way to do this? also when i do water changes do i need to lower the ph of the new water i put in or will a small amount not make such a difference.

i heard that once i get mopani wood in there this will lower the ph but will it be enough?

thanks in advance for all your help guys. iv learnt so much allready from these forums so im sorry for asking all the questions!

all the best,

andy

You really need to know your Gh and Kh as they will determine how easy or how hard it will be to alter the pH, as far as I know. If you have lots of dissolved solids within the water, and then try to alter the Ph you'll probably find the water will bounce straight back up a few days later.
You best bet would be to get an RO kit which would solve your problem straight away and now doubt be the cheapest option in the long run.
Some people use peat to lower the water which works pretty well as far as I know.
I also have your kind of water, alhtough mine comes out of the tap at 8.3...so I buy 15 gallons of RO water from my fish shop every couple of weeks, only becuase I'm not able to have an RO kit fitted into my house

also when i do water changes do i need to lower the ph of the new water i put in or will a small amount not make such a difference.

Yes you will need to lower it otherwise it will only put your pH back up to where it was...or at least on the way to where it originally was.

i heard that once i get mopani wood in there this will lower the ph but will it be enough?

Again, depends on your Kh and Gh...but I'd be very surprised if the mopani made an real difference....normal bogwood would probably be more effective but even that will be limited in it's effect.

Don't quote me on it but I think people have spawned zebs in water with your pH value so it isn't necessarily the end of the world...the most important thing is stability in the water parameters I think.

If you can provide the other values of your water it would help in deciding the best course of action I think.

Plastic Mac[/quote]

thanks for your reply!

iv been meaning to get a kit to test gh and kh so il buy one soon and see what it is.

anyone else care to "chip in" on this?

I just use RO and electro right for all my water changes which keeps the PH at 6.5. Why not try going to you LFS and getting some RO water to see if that helps.

I would also agree with Plastic and zebrastorey! I just use Ro water which is at 6.8-7.0 and i use RO right and it seems to work fine! IMO zebras arent really fussy about the ph. I also throw in a big compartment full of peat in my Rena....and that seems to be enough!

so if my waters at 7.2 would this be ok for the zebs?

IMO it would be fine. I have kept zebras in that for over 3 years and they grew perfectly ok. I have heard they spawned at this too, though it hasn't happened to me personally.

i use RO water i dont like buffers of any kind i bought some hardness junk and followed the instrucoin then tested 20 min later and the hardness was like 16 waste of $$$$

what do i do if my water flucuates on its own...

ahh um does that work in a watter jug with a small opening or do i need like a bucket

Well if I may suggest as many water changes as possible, and mine are straight from the tap, and I have used this method in London where the water is very hard and in Liverpool where it is soft.

As Barbie says stability is the most important thing, or may I add to this very gradual change.

Assuming that you have a very high turnover of water in your tank, my method is to refill, the tank via air line from a water source above the tank.

Zebs are quite tough, but I also keep and breed Tropheus Moori Chipimbi wild caught (These are a bit sensitive) in a soft water area, buffered with sea shells, they are perfectly happy. I do regular 50% water straight from the tap.

Same with L255 and L201.

Take care

Dave

My tap water has a normal kH of 5, but over time the kH drops to 2 in my tank. The pH stays at a constant 7.44 (+/-0.02); which means the CO2 content in the water is at around 2.5ppm - I use a powerhead and air pump that go off and on throughout the 24 hour cycle.

But my question is how can you have a pH of 6.5? It either means your adding CO2 to your water or your kH is much lower than 2. Which is it? Unless of course you have high phosphates, which throws off the whole kH-pH relationship. Can someone clarify.