Anyone use Neutral Regulator?

[40GallonsOfDoom]

I picked some up yesterday because I've noticed my ph seems to be going down a little over time. Just curious as to what others are doing. When searching the forum, I was getting posts that were several years old.

 

[John58Ford]

I have crazy soft water at the tap with hardly any mineralization. I custom mix a buffer to add at water changes and typically when I'm due for a change the pH is slightly lower and I have a decent build up of nitrogen. I don't buffer between water changes if that's what you are planning to use the neutral regulator for. Even as heavily planted and highly lit as my tanks are I find the mineral use (easiest monitor is the pH testing, or KH/GH testing) to be on an inverse ratio to nitrate build up so I would have an imbalance if I just added buffer to raise the pH causing various plant and algae issues, possibly eventually getting into hurt the fish level nitrates.

If you are lightly stocked and daily dosing fertilizer with high light to grow plants faster you may need to add minerals as you go and not worry about nitrogen like I do but it's definitely a case specific practice. My tanks are moderately heavy stocking most of the time so the nitrogen buildup is quicker than the intake of the plants.

When your pH starts to dip does your nitrate come in higher than your goal? Does your GH drop at a similar rate to your KH?

From their website about neutral regulator:
"Overview
Neutral Regulator® adjusts pH to neutral (pH 7.0) from either a low or high pH and maintains it there. It softens water by precipitating calcium and magnesium while removing any chlorine, chloramine, and detoxifying ammonia. The use of Neutral Regulator® makes other conditioning unnecessary. To lower pH below 7.0 use Neutral Regulator® with Acid Regulator™ (or Discus Buffer®). To raise pH above 7.0 use with Alkaline Regulator™. All of these products will enhance and stabilize the freshwater aquarium environment. For further freshwater environment enhancement, use Fresh Trace™ to restore the proper level of trace elements and feed NutriDiet® Tropical Flakes for thriving, healthy freshwater community fish.

Contains phosphate buffers and conditioning agents. Safe for all freshwater fish acclimated to neutral pH."

With that, I don't know that intentionally precipitating your GH minerals (calcium and magnesium) would be beneficial in several use cases, and I'm unsure of the specific "proprietary salts" they use in this one in relation to holding up the pH if your under 7. So really I can't say if it's a good call or not. All I can do is share what I have access to and some insight.

Everyone's water is different, and so are our goals and methods.

 

[40GallonsOfDoom]

I have crazy soft water at the tap with hardly any mineralization. I custom mix a buffer to add at water changes and typically when I'm due for a change the pH is slightly lower and I have a decent build up of nitrogen. I don't buffer between water changes if that's what you are planning to use the neutral regulator for. Even as heavily planted and highly lit as my tanks are I find the mineral use (easiest monitor is the pH testing, or KH/GH testing) to be on an inverse ratio to nitrate build up so I would have an imbalance if I just added buffer to raise the pH causing various plant and algae issues, possibly eventually getting into hurt the fish level nitrates.

If you are lightly stocked and daily dosing fertilizer with high light to grow plants faster you may need to add minerals as you go and not worry about nitrogen like I do but it's definitely a case specific practice. My tanks are moderately heavy stocking most of the time so the nitrogen buildup is quicker than the intake of the plants.

When your pH starts to dip does your nitrate come in higher than your goal? Does your GH drop at a similar rate to your KH?

From their website about neutral regulator:
"Overview
Neutral Regulator® adjusts pH to neutral (pH 7.0) from either a low or high pH and maintains it there. It softens water by precipitating calcium and magnesium while removing any chlorine, chloramine, and detoxifying ammonia. The use of Neutral Regulator® makes other conditioning unnecessary. To lower pH below 7.0 use Neutral Regulator® with Acid Regulator™ (or Discus Buffer®). To raise pH above 7.0 use with Alkaline Regulator™. All of these products will enhance and stabilize the freshwater aquarium environment. For further freshwater environment enhancement, use Fresh Trace™ to restore the proper level of trace elements and feed NutriDiet® Tropical Flakes for thriving, healthy freshwater community fish.

Contains phosphate buffers and conditioning agents. Safe for all freshwater fish acclimated to neutral pH."

With that, I don't know that intentionally precipitating your GH minerals (calcium and magnesium) would be beneficial in several use cases, and I'm unsure of the specific "proprietary salts" they use in this one in relation to holding up the pH if your under 7. So really I can't say if it's a good call or not. All I can do is share what I have access to and some insight.

Everyone's water is different, and so are our goals and methods.

That's a lot of information. Thank you!

I wouldn't say I'm heavily stocked and when I checked my nitrates and nitrites I was at 0. Also 0 ammonia, just the ph was dipping a bit. I used the regulator today but not the full dose for the tank, just to see what it did. I'm about to do another check now. Looks like it got up to about 6.8. So I'm thinking I should not mess with it again.