Can I safely lower the pH of my freshwater aquarium by adding vinegar?
by Aquaboy on Saturday, February 20th, 2010 | 4 Comments
I have two oscars, a Jack Dempsey, a bala shark, a blue gourami, and two plecos in a 75 gallon aquarium.
Absolutely not. Vinegar is organic and will rot, meaning the concentrations needed to affect the pH at all will also mean you’ll have to deal with ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate spikes. On top of that, it is rarely necessary to alter the pH of your water, especially with the fish you listed, as they are VERY adaptable. If you feel absolutely inclined to toy with your pH, add some driftwood or peat moss, as the tannins leached into the water will acidify it (it’s tannic acid). Reverse osmosis water is also an option, but it is far more expensive, and it becomes a hassle to add it to tap water so you don’t use water entirely devoid of dissolved minerals.
By the way, your tank is massively overstocked… It’s barely enough for two adult Oscars, let alone all the others (and the Bala should have a school), so I really hope you have a 150+ gallon tank coming in the very near future.
You would have none of these problems if you had a few gold fish and other nicer, little fishies!
No.
Using natural – or anything that can be found in your kitchen – alternatives in fish tanks is always VERY high risk, but vingear will rot and cause major damage to a stable tank environment. If you need/want to change your ph, all good aquarium stores will sell different products depending what you need (products are applied over a week to gradually decrease the PH as to not upset/kill your fish – anything that says changing your PH by more than 0.3 in one day should be left on the shelf to rot – don’t let clerks tell you otherwise, either.)
Also, PH tester kits are also a good idea – once a week to keep an eye on the water to make constant adjustments, and once every 12 hours during the time you are adjusting the PH.
I have a 55 gallon freshwater tank the PH went to 9.0 all but 2 algae eaters died I replaced the water put the I still cannot keep the ph down I have used bottles of PH decreaser. Please help the tank is beautiful to look at but does not support fish and I am afraid to add more because of the PH issues.