I need lower PH

[Dono]

Hi
Can anyone suggest a way that i can lower the PH in my fish tank?

Currentley i am at 7.4PH and fish going well but some plants are growing to fast and streching not fruiting... eg tomatos 2mt heigh

Any suggestions would be great

Thanks Dono

[Murray]

Adjusting pH down.
The easiest and safest way is to use the juice of a lemon. It will depend on the total litres or gallons of water in your AP
system as to how many lemons will be needed.
In a system of 1000 ltrs (250 gallons) the juice of half a lemon would be added initially. Wait for 24 hours then measure
the pH. If a small fall is observed then repeat the process until you have the system down to just below 7.0 in the ideal
range.
"Lemon Juice as a pH down adjuster."
I have also used Lemon Juice concentrate.
In my Patio Quad system there is a total of 1650 ltrs (425 gl approx) of water in the system.
I added 250 ml of the lemon concentrate per day for 4 days. This reduced the pH from 7.5 on day one to a reading of 6.8
on day 5. The system has drifted up a little to 7.0 on day 6, but appears to be holding at 7.0 for now.
As the system gets more age I expect to see the pH slowly come down further all by itself.
In the early stages of an Aquaponics system the pH can sometimes be elevated and difficult to bring down. I have used
very small amounts of Hydrochloric acid to adjust downwards. It can be purchased from hardware stores for under 10.00
for 1 ltr. BE VERY CAREFUL HANDLING ACID. One CAP full at a time. Wait 24 hours and add more carrying out pH readings
all the while. Remember slowly and easy does it…..pH adjustments should be done slowly.

[Ravnis]

distilled white vinegar works well too.

I would not be that concerned at a ph of 7.4. Many members have had outstanding growth at that ph. I have a system that runs at 7.4 on a regular basis and has good growth. The tomatoes are over 2 meters tall. I had been adding acid on a regular basis and from my experience I observed 2 things.

1. didnt really change growth rate
2. did stress the fish and had a couple of disease outbreaks. Changed the ph 0.4 points every other day.

I did have a problem with not fruiting until I started adding some potassium chloride. Had 50 blooms turned to fruit in a few days. So you might want to check on something like potassium and calcium deficiency before you sweat too much about ph.

[Dono]

Thanks Murry the lemon worked great all the plants stoped stretching and are growing normal

regards Don.