adjusting pH of aquarium water

[Blah blah]

Hello all,

I was wondering...why is sulfuric acid often used to lower the pH of
aquarium water? I thought that it would be more toxic than using something
like hydrochloric acid. Do the SO4 ions serve a purpose in the tank? Please
let me know. Also, does anyone know the concentration of sulfuric acid in
commercial home aquarium pH adjustor kits? There's a warning, alerting me to
the precense of sulfuric acid and warning me of it's corrosive properties,
but no mention as to how concentrated it is.

Many thanks in advance for your help!

Paul

[Mean_Chlorine]

"Blah blah" > wrote in message .net>...

> I was wondering...why is sulfuric acid often used to lower the pH of
> aquarium water?

Are you sure you got that right? Sulphuric acid isn't that common
AFAIK, but phosphoric acid is slightly popular because it forms a
phosphate buffer which steadies the pH afterwards.

However, I think none of the strong mineral acids are very popular in
aquaristics; humic acid (via oak extract, leaves, etc) is much more
widely used to lower pH. In my experience, anyway.