Hard water and high PH and new fingerlings

[John]

My system has been up for over a year and does just fine w/ goldfish and greens.   But I have 15 Tiliapia showing up by mail tomorrow and am second guessing myself to death and thought I'd post a question about high PH and hard water. 

My water is very hard and it seems nearly impossible to bring down the PH due the alkalinity.  Even healthy doses of muratic acid added to the water and let set for days before adding to the system do not seem to keep the PH under 8 for very long and it just feels unhealthy to try that.  So I long ago stopped trying to adjust the PH.  I never worried about 8.0 or even 8.2 PH readings because my goldfish are very healthy and my greens all seem fine. 

But from my renewed research, I am dreading that the new fish will belly up with high PH.   I would like to bring down the PH to around 7 over time and what I am reading is that I can soften the water first by flowing the water through peat moss before adding it to the fish tank. The idea being that soft water is easier to change the PH in. 

My questions:  is it a horrible idea to introduce Tiliapia w/ 8.0 PH?     Do you think softening the water through a filter with a peat moss sock is a viable solution to make the PH more manageable   Lastly,  would you think it better to leave the PH alone while the fingerlings grow some or would it be better to adjust slowly over the next week or so they have a more desired level. 

thanks, 

[Pat James]

I am looking at a similar issue, but instead of tilapia, i will be dealing with channel cats. I do know that the Rift lake cichlids like high ph but not sure about the Nile ,etc...

[John]

Well the info sheet that came w/ the fish said to match the PH of the water they came in which was 7.0.     Makes sense.   I have a separate aquarium and am adjusting the PH there before adding in the new fingerings.   I'll post back on what I decide to do about adjusting the PH in the main system.  I am thinking I need a new water source if the peat moss trick doesn't work.   

[John]

One week later and all the tilapia fingerlings are happy as can be.  They seem like hardly little fellows.  

Here's my own answer to the peat moss sock.  Way to messy even if it does work.  Forget it. 

I am now replacing about 20 gallons a day in my main 160 gallon combined system with Brita filtered water.  Simply running my 8.2 PH tap water through a Brita filter brings the PH down to 6.7-7.2 depending on how many gallons have gone through it.   Seems to be working until I can get some rain barrels hooked up this spring.   Guessing in a week or so I can get the PH down to about 7. 

[marie]

  Glad I read this, good info about water ph. Never would have thought of brita. We have well water too and only had koi and goldfish in our pond,no problem with them,but hubby said taken from faucet our ph is 7.0. Our hydroponic reservour and buckets 6.0- 6.5. If things change,we know what to do now.

  PS, we are just thinking of aqauponics because its natural. So we are set up for fish in some respects.

[Dan Knauss]

What kind of Brita filter are you using to generate 20 gallons a day, and how often does the filter need to be changed? Do you mean one of those Brita filters you install on a tap? They're just activated charcoal filters, aren't they? I wonder if I could use a similar method to clean and use the brine from an RO filter. It's 7.5pH and has been through a water softener...

John said:

One week later and all the tilapia fingerlings are happy as can be.  They seem like hardly little fellows.  

Here's my own answer to the peat moss sock.  Way to messy even if it does work.  Forget it. 

I am now replacing about 20 gallons a day in my main 160 gallon combined system with Brita filtered water.  Simply running my 8.2 PH tap water through a Brita filter brings the PH down to 6.7-7.2 depending on how many gallons have gone through it.   Seems to be working until I can get some rain barrels hooked up this spring.   Guessing in a week or so I can get the PH down to about 7. 

[John]

I was using a this Brita and by slow filling and letting it drain into a bucket but it is a pain. .   I was loosely sticking to 40 gallons per filter.  The PH wouldn't be reduced so much after water runs though it a while. 

I also thought about filtering brine  through brita but the expense would be high and would clog the filter more quickly. 

Since then, I upgraded to this RO filter.      Hard water goes in 8.3, comes out <PH 6.0 ( bottom of chart ) but adjusts to the tank PH at 6.8 w/o PH adjustments so far.    I top off few gallons a week. 

I'm not sure if RO best thing for Aquaponics or if I need to add something to it.  Fish could be happer also.  They seem to not like the switch and are lethargic.   I've been very gradual w/ the replacement. 

[Dan Knauss]

Thanks for replying. Makes me wonder if running my RO brine through a large box of charcoal and sand would bring down the pH and clean it up enough to be usable.