Is sodium Biophosphate Bad.

[goodoo]

Well its Bio PHOSPHATE . should i not be using it to lower my ph.

[rex82]

short answer.....no. long answer......why are you lowering your ph anyways?

[goodoo]

everything i have read says you need to. Now im thinking i dont need to cause im not really lowering the ph using that stuff. Yeah ive still got to do some research into how water works. Ive read every fish book i can find .time for water chemestry I think . Wish i paid attention at school

[rex82]

whats your PH? lowering ph is like chasing a dragon....you will add acid to drop it, then it will bounce back up because of the buffering effect of carbonate hardness, so you add more, but it bounces back up again, so then you add more and it stays...... but then the buffers have all been eaten up by the acid and there is nothing keeping the ph stable and it drops and you kill the fish.... not to mention your water is now like pea soup with all the new "stuff" that has been added in your efforts. you want clean stable water and your fish will love you for it.

[goodoo]

my water is stable. test kit is allways comes up same shade of green. so water is neautral slightly acidic. Thats in the tank. out of the tap is alkaline. water here is soft.

[rex82]

then you dont need to add anything at all looking at that....just age your water and use.

[goodoo]

yeah been thinking about phasing out the stuff after reading a few posts ive read on here. so just leave it alkaline you reckon. I age and heat 150 litres every week. tank is 250

[swampy1972]

I have soft water that comes from the tap at mid 7 Ph. All I do is add dechlorinator and the tank takes care of the ph.
If you want to lower your ph you can do it by using very small amounts of Hydrochloric acid. It's a very economical way of doing it and you're adding nothing additional or unwanted. Do a search here and you're bound to find the details.
All the best. ;)

[rex82]

i and many others have kept discus between the ph ranges of 5 - 8 and comfortabley.....but you will find the fish to be happiest when water is left without adding anything at all

[goodoo]

ok thanks guys. They are allready happy growing like freaks. now they should be happier.