PH Down?

[R.K. Castillo]

Started a system that was previously cycled but when we restarted it didn't have any Nitrates...or anything really.  

But I noticed the PH is around 8.6.  

Is there a ninja way of lowering the PH?  I could go to the Hydro store and get PH down but was wondering if anyone had any other tricks?  

[David - WI]

I've been using muriatic (hydrochloric) acid from the hardware or pool supply store... nasty stuff; but it's cheap and it works.

[R.K. Castillo]

How much do you put in per Gallon of water in your fish tank?

[Keith Rowan]

if your system isn't cycled, i'd leave it, the higher ph is good for the nitrification process to start

[David - WI]

I'm not an expert (nobody else had responded) but I think it depends on how hard your water is.

I started out adding 3 oz per 1000 gallons of water because I didn't want to "bounce" the pH too much.  It would come down into the high 6's for a couple hours and go right back to "off the chart".  So, I went to adding 6 oz per 1000 gallons after about a week.

At 100 oz per 1000 gallons the pH finally stabilized at around 6.8 for a couple days and since then the top-off water has brought it back up to over 7.

So, I added a total of 1 oz per 10 gallons of water over the course of about 3 weeks.

I'm not saying it's the right way to do it, but that's what I did.