shakaho said:
As others have said, your pH is perfect. Lemon juice would be a terrible choice for lowering pH. It's loaded with organic materials that will rot and foul your water.
Actually lemon Juice has citric acid, all natural. it will work for lowering PH, The problem with lemon juice is that the Citric acid is bio-degradable and the bio-filter will actually feed on the acid and use it at a high rate, without a stabilizer it's going to start fluctuating the PH greatly, that is bad for your fish. Also, what is it breaking down too?? If you don't know and you can't find a safe answer, best advice, DON'T USE IT! Stability in your PH is what is more important. A ph of 6.5-8.0 is actually not going to harm your fish, If it is to the outer extremes it can cause some issues with your bio filter and also can effect breeding to some extent but by far not keep anything from happening, they just may lay less, or produce more infertile eggs. but the fish themselves aren't going to be that affected, If the PH is going from 6.5-7.5 then back to 6.5 or vice verse, this will cause stress which could lead to possible parasite and bacteria outbreaks.
I get oyster shells from a local seafood restraunt that serves oysters on the half shell, I boil them for about 30 minutes, let them dry completely, then let them soak in a bucket of water and change the water completely out once a week until I do not read any ammonia and has a non-rotten smell. (This is to remove any extra left muscle tissue that may be left over) Crush about 3-4 gallons worth, rinse once more and then place them in the filter fall. Started using this method last year, The original bag I started with has probably lost about 1/4th of the original amount. PH stays within 7.4- 7.7 except after heavy rains which actually makes it climb to 7.8-7.9 for about 48-72 hours before slowly lowering. I've tested my rain water catch and 8.0-8.2 is fairly normal catch water PH.
