# Seachem Neutral Regulator?



## freemike (Feb 3, 2012)

What do guys think of this product?


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## Bombalurina (Oct 10, 2011)

I don't use anything that artificially alters pH, hardness or alkalinity. I love Seachem stuff, but I would buy this. The effect is only temporary, so you have to keep adding it, and if you are a day or two late in doing so, the chemical adjustment can be too much for the fish.

Am I talking about the right product?


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## callistra (Jun 29, 2010)

I use it and have used it as long as I've had bettas. It works well, but I use very soft RO water so I'm not sure it would be effective on straight tap or hard water of any kind.

That said, I don't recommend it unless the ph of your water is just so awful it can't be used (which mine is). I had a choice between no betta and the stuff so I use it I have to test my ph constantly, age my water 4 days before using and add more regulator at least bi weekly to keep the ph stable.

Actually, when the ph begins to shift it is very slowly and not stressful on the fish. It's not like it's okay one day and bam way off the next. Not even close. My eldest is between 4-5 y.o and been on the stuff his whole life so I don't think it's hurting him. I add neutral regulator along with water changes and it keeps things within ok ranges. Otherwise my tap water can reach a ph of 9 and treated with RO system it drops below 6 so either way I have to do something. This is a imperfect but workable solution.


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

Disclaimer, this is from the point of view from someone who uses it to buffer soft water.

I use Neutral regulator in all my uncycled, unfiltered betta tanks as our tap water is incredibly soft and the resultant pH fluctuations were stressing my bettas out.

You want a product that works on the KH not the GH of your water. If the product adjusts the KH the results are longer lasting, as it increases the buffering capacity of the water.

Neutral regulator adjusts the KH, which greatly reduces fluctuations in pH, at least in very soft water such as mine. I did a KH test after adding the product and it had bumped the KH up to a much more suitable level.

It does occasionally struggle when I add IALs to tanks and the pH drops to around 6.4-6.8. However, it is much better than the 6 (low as my test kit will go) that I was getting before (our water is around 6.8-7.0 out of the tap).

My bettas are also all a lot healthier now the pH has stopped fluctuating so wildly.


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## SnowySurface (Apr 25, 2011)

If your water is soft, then you can follow Callistra and LittleBettaFish's advice. If you have hard water, then your water has a high buffering capacity. That high buffering capacity will make it very difficult to change the pH because your water will adjust itself back to its original pH. Soft water can be adjusted and fluctuates very gently because it has a low buffering capacity, as LittleBettaFish mentioned above. I can't speak for the water in Australia, but I've lived with Bettas in the state of New York (pH = off the chart but probably 8-8.2 if I can drink it) and Connecticut (pH = 7.5) and niether of those pH values bothered any of my bettas.

Also as a side note, soft water doesn't always have a low pH and hard water doesn't always have a high pH. It is possible to have hard water or soft water with a pH of 7.0. If you are wondering if your water is hard, you can either test for hardness or put nuetueral Regulator in tap water that doesn't have any fish in it. If the Regulator doesn't do much or it does do something but the results are short lived, your water is hard. If the Regulator does work and the results last, then the water is soft.

I have hard water so I don't touch any pH regulating chemicals with a 10 foot pole. XD


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## callistra (Jun 29, 2010)

Our tap water is very very hard but the RO system makes it super soft.


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## SnowySurface (Apr 25, 2011)

I don't haave the money for an RO system, so I stick with my hard tap water. Now that I want to start growing live plants in my tank, I'm limited because any plant that needs soft water will melt in my tanks. T_T


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## freemike (Feb 3, 2012)

What is an RO system? I've decided to leave the PH levels alone.


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## Bombalurina (Oct 10, 2011)

Sorry if I made it sound like I was speaking in general, guys - I meant that comment from a personal view.  In all the above situations, I'm sure it is a godsend. 
If you can get away with not using chemical additives, though, I would.


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

It's fine. I personally have steered clear of using these kind of products in the past, as most were just a temporary fix and I wanted something that would last until my next water change (4-5 days). 

Since my hardness test showed that my KH had increased to a more stable level using Seachem Regulator, and that it minimised my previous swings in pH, I decided to continue using it.

For a long-term approach to buffering soft water, I usually use a small pinch of crushed coral in a stocking. This gradually raises the pH and hardness and keeps my biological filter running efficiently. It was only that these tanks weren't cycled that I had to use another approach.


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## SnowySurface (Apr 25, 2011)

An RO system is a Reverse Osmosis System. Osmosis is when the solutes in a solvent travel from higher concentration to lower concentration. A good example is salt water. When you add salt to a glass of water the salt doesn't sit in one section of the glass. The salt spreads out and makes all the water in the glass salty. 

Reverses Osmosis cleans water by making solutes in a solvent travel from a lower concentration to a higher concentration. So, the random metals and salts that want to spread out in water are forced to sit quitely in the corner, i.e. a series of filters and membranes, while the pure water flows through the series of filters to a tank/barrel/sink.

RO systems can be pretty pricey. I googled them once out of curiosity and most of them seemed to be around $300. I wouldn't bother unless I had a 100 gallon tank or needed to make my water drinkable.


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