# driftwood and pH and a Q about water hardness



## stephanieleah (Oct 31, 2009)

When driftwood lowers pH, does the impact last only as long as the original water is in the tank, or does the pH eventually go back up?

and since my questions always seem to come in pairs:

is what hardness pretty much a stable number? I'm wondering if it's possible to increase or decrease it to support certain fish (without it fluctuating too much).


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## turkeyofthesea (Mar 29, 2009)

I bought a piece of bogwood when I began my tank last year, and despite many water changes (after i had boiled the wood first) the PH was very low, around 5.5, for more then 8 months. I assume that it would have continued to stay low for quite a long time with water changes.

It wasn't until half a year later that a clerk at the LFS suggested I add just a small piece of base rock to bring it up a bit. It worked and has stayed at around 6.5 ever since. BTW my tap is around 7.2. While my findings are by no mean scientific proof, just what i found from experience.

Don't have an answer for the second part though I'm afraid.


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## 1077 (Apr 16, 2008)

stephanieleah said:


> When driftwood lowers pH, does the impact last only as long as the original water is in the tank, or does the pH eventually go back up?
> 
> and since my questions always seem to come in pairs:
> 
> ...


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## Angel079 (Feb 14, 2007)

DW lower pH and hardness, yes - But sometimes (ofte) so lil you won't even measure it unless you have a super large DW piece in a mini tank 
And yes, you're removing the tannis with each w/c and add new 'harder' water with higher ph back in the tank, eventually it'll be back up where you started.
Hardness if not a stable # - Goes hand in hand with your pH - You alter 1 you alter the other 1 and vise versa.
No you will not ONLY change your hardness, any time you try to do that, you'll also find a drop in pH.

Tempering with your water is tricky, time & money consuming when done right. You'd then need to ENSURE each & every single w/c is EXACTLY the same parameters (which is next to impossible to do) otherwise exposing your fish to permant up & down swings, stresses them, stress causes sickness & short life, neither of which is desired in a tank.


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