pH and breeding (what's the best way to lower)?

[tpl*co]

OK, I want to give my pair some help since they are trying to breed but the eggs are turning white (not fertilized). I know the male is OK (doing passes) and the female is OK and all they do is stare at the cone (only leave to eat then go back to staring at the cone). Only have sponge filters going in the tank now. Well, tested my water parameters nitrates and nitrites are OK, hardness is 5 which I found out is OK, but my pH came out at 8! (What is the water company doing!!!). I am suspecting I should lower the pH but what is the best way to do it? I also have a big oak tree in the back yard, could I steep Oak leaves to add to the water and bring down the pH? (I thought I read something somewhere on this)? I have some pH buffer but it is a phospate buffer and I think I read somewhere that phosphate is bad?

I also have a potassium whole house water softener on my house, I've read somewhere that sodium softeners aren't good, but what about potassium? KCl? (OK for plants, but could it be hurting the eggs?).

My poor fish are trying so hard to be parents (and I really want them to be parents!) LOL.

[tpl*co]

anybody?

[jdellman]

I know they are not chaep, but you can get a R/O filter. There are a lot of posts on Peat on the site, but I do not personally know much about it.

[ppv1951]

r/o is probly the best way for you to go. ebay has some reasonably priced units from filterdirect. 110 gpd, about $115, shipped. one guy over at DAAH swears by his.

be sure to mix some of your tap water back.

pat.

[Rod]

A couple of things may be worth trying, prob the better way would be peat moss which will lower your conductivity along with the ph which should give you a relatively stable low ph.....i've tried it before and got very good results but it can also be tedious if you have a lot of water to process. Another method would be mixing r/o water with your tapwater to lower the conductance then adding an acid that doesn't have the phosphorous (and the salt that many acid buffers have which imo is even worse for breeding than the phosphorous), i use hydrocloric acid with good enough results.

hth

[Alight]

I don't have first hand experience with how pH affects the fertility. I'm guessing the problem may not be the water. I'm assuming the hardness of 5 is GH. If so, then you are near the high end, but a few eggs should turn dark and hatch.

To see if pH is a problem, you can use muriatic acid to lower the pH.

I use muriatic acid from Home Depot to alter my pH (essentially hydrochloric acid). You can buy it in 1 gallon jugs, very cheaply. Since you won't be using much, the impurities are not important (some nasties in it like arsenic, but so little, given the very small amounts you'll be using that it is negligible.

For GH water of 3, about 5 drops of straight muriatic acid will change the pH of about 40 gallons of water about 0.2 units. You will need to figure out how much to use in your own case, but this will give you a starting point.