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Thread: Muriatic Acid to lower pH

  1. #1
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    Default Muriatic Acid to lower pH

    Greets All,

    I have been fighting the pH war here on my end in an attempt to be able to get some wild discus.

    Heres the numbers I have out of the tap and after being aged. The water is if nothing else very stable. All the tank raised fish dont seem to mind the tap water at all.

    pH 8.4-5
    gH 14-15
    kH 3-4

    Yeah I know I should be raising african cichlids instead ;D

    I went to the store today and got a one gallon jug of muriatic acid and pored about a 1sec worth into a 5 gallon bucket. The pH is still dropping which is fine since Im playing around trying to get a feel for the right ratio.

    I was looking for anyone else that was going this route to see if they had any does/donts and any other good advice for this.

    Peace,
    Roger


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    Default Re:Muriatic Acid to lower pH

    Find what works for you, and add it in a holding receptacle first, and aerate for 24 hours. It will drop the pH drasticly, and then it will start to rise fast. If you are going to use it, never put it directly into a tank of fish, and try your hardest to keep each batch at the same level. Good luck Frank

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    Default Re:Muriatic Acid to lower pH

    Roger
    Muratic acid is nastey stuff, wear protective gloves and eye protection when using it all so you do not want to breath the fumes.
    Frank is right it will drop the ph fast then it will rebound a little.
    Always mix in a separete container NOT in the aquarium and let it stabilize for 12 to 24 hours before using.
    I have used it and if the need arises I will use it again.
    An other option for you would be to peat filter your water, I feel this is better but more work.
    Dennis

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    Default Re:Muriatic Acid to lower pH

    Roger,
    Dennis is right on. The stuff is dangerous so use extreme caution. My water is similar to yours and I advise that you keep a close o eye on the ph until you get exactly what you want. The ph will definately rebound. Good Luck.
    Brian

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    Default Re:Muriatic Acid to lower pH

    Hey Dennis, FC, Brian

    Looks like I have some playing around to do so that I can get a feel for this stuff. I have a few weeks before I plan on picking up any wilds.

    I have some peat in house now but what Im finding is that the water is so hard and the pH so high that it takes a lot of work to get it to drop.

    One of the questions that I have is does anyone know if adding muriatic acid changes hardness at all. I would think that its possible that kH drops since thats a measure of pH buffering capacity.

    It may end up being a mix of muriatic acid to lower the pH and knock down kH and the peat to lower pH and hopefully knock down gH.

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    Default Re:Muriatic Acid to lower pH

    I switched to M. acid a few weeks ago and I'm loving the savings over discus buffer. I add it to my storage container and airate it for 24 hours. My ph stays steady as long as I keep it at 6.5ph. My water out of the tap is 10+ph, GH 5, KH 2. If I try to decrease the ph under 6.5ph it will rise over 24 hours to 6.5ph again so I start of at 6.5ph and it stays there. I also use a 1 gallon milk jug to dilute the acid about 6/8 water then top it off with the acid. This way its much safer to handle daily and the 1 gallon jug will treat 55g of water a day for over a month.

  7. #7
    Registered Member Carol_Roberts's Avatar
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    Default Re:Muriatic Acid to lower pH

    Dennis has soft water - that's why his ph bounces up a little. Your's will bounce around like a ping pong ball!

    My well water is GH 11 (not as hard as yours). You will be amazed at how much acid you have to use to lower your pH and keep it there AND it's not going to happen with a little overnight airstone. Get out the big pond pump and agitate it like a washing machine. . . . . . BUT WHY?

    Acid doesn't soften the water at all and INCREASES TDS

    You need an RO to soften your water THEN you can add a bit of acid or peat to lower the pH.

    Carol

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    Default Re:Muriatic Acid to lower pH

    Carol

    Isnt it the kH that does the buffering and not the gH?

    And yes Im working on getting a RO system but it may be a couple of weeks before I manage it and then probably another couple of weeks to figure out what mix of water to get what I want.

    My 1st experiment with this stuff was a total nightmare, glad I did all my water changes before I added it to my aging tank. Suffice to say a few water changes to the aging tank and I have the pH holding mostly steady at 7.8. Im happy with that since all my fish are at 8.4ish and a sudden drop is what Im trying to avoid.

    BTW a wooden stand with a 120g tank creaks when you fill and empty it I just didnt realize it since I have never had anything bigger than a 55 and that is on iron.

    Peace,
    Roger

  9. #9
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    Default Re:Muriatic Acid to lower pH

    Hi Roger

    I have used M-Acid for a while too.
    It takes out the KH and it brings the Conductivity/Tds up.
    I later changed to RO with the best result.
    If you go with wild's I dont think bringing up the Cond./Tds is a good thing. Of course that depends on the parameters you have right now.
    Either use peat or RO thats to my knowleged the best for wild's. I use for my wild.s R/O and they like it. I get a pH of 6.5 and I adjust the conductivity to 200. The KH is very low but with regular W/C it stays very stable.
    KH is only a part of GH so if one would say GH affects the buffering he would not be that wrong.

  10. #10
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    Default Re:Muriatic Acid to lower pH

    Hi Roger;

    I have to agree with Carol. The ability to bring the pH down using "acids" depends on the KH. If the KH or buffering capacity is very high then it will take a LOT of acid to bring it down and keep it down. I have used "pH down" before for my well water which is fairly soft and easier to adjust. Also be careful with using acids, once the buffering capacity is "exhausted" by adding acids the pH can really plummet and cause severe harm to your Discus.

    With water that is as hard as yours I would use RO/tap mix to get it the way you would like.

    HTH, Lester

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    Default Re:Muriatic Acid to lower pH

    I had a nice call with Walter from airwaterice.com about a RO unit. If things go right I should have one in my hands by at the latest monday. Until then I still need to work on this muriatic acid combination.

    My goal with muriatic acid is to be able to make 6.50 water without having to give up all the kH to get there. I have the sneaking feeling that even once I have RO in house that Ill be probably be mixing water anyways. Whether its RO + tap or RO + tap + peate water or even acid water.

    Its a big yes on high kH and pH bouncing around, I have the water at 7.8 and running through a peat bag. I had 3 water that I added tap to do get there so the kH shouldnt be completely depleted. Ill be measuring the gH kH and getting back with those numbers.

  12. #12
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    Default Re:Muriatic Acid to lower pH

    Phosphoric acid human grade is best 80%

    Cary Gld!
    p.s
    Muriatic acid will also remove o2 from your water so its best to use it on the side

  13. #13
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    Default Re:Muriatic Acid to lower pH

    Cary: where would you get Phosphoric Acid, and answer my e-mail already! Frank

  14. #14
    Registered Member yogi's Avatar
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    Default Re:Muriatic Acid to lower pH

    For things like phosphoric acid or for formalin. Look up chemicals in your local yellow pages. If that doesn't work call Advance Scientific and Chemical Inc. in Dania Beach, Fl. I can't find there 800 number, but this is there regular number. (954) 327-0900

  15. #15
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    Default Re:Muriatic Acid to lower pH

    I wonder if the reason that you get such a nasty drop then bounce with Muriatic acid is that because it does rob the water of O2 that which also causes pH to drop. As you airate the system all the O2 coming back makes it rocket back up. ?

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