You do not need to lower your pH. The pond is clearly buffered at that pH,
perhaps from Baking Soda. The thing is acidity is the inverse of
alkalinity - if one increases the other decreases.

--
Jim and Sara Humphries, Victoria, BC
"Gabrielle" wrote in message
...
My new pond is a mess, as new ponds tend to be. I'm trying to be very
patient as the water gets greener before it gets clearer.

The one spot I have tried to meddle in is lowering the pH. After a month,
with plants (alive but not thriving) & turtles but no fish, my pH was high
at 8.4, and my total alkalinity was high at about 250. I very cautiously
used pH Down and now the total alkalinity is about 120, which my test kit
says is ideal, but my pH is still about 8.4. What can I do to lower pH
without further lowering total alkalinity? Nitrate & nitrite are both in
the safe zones and the water has gone from very hard to somewhere between
hard & soft. The pond is about 1400 gallons with a small waterfall and 8'
stream emptying into the pond. I'm in the Sonoran Desert in southwestern
Arizona with temps 100+ most days and I have to top off the pond about
every other day to cover evaporation. I spent last weekend erecting a
shade cloth awning over the pond to help with sunlight & heat issues.

Gabrielle, who is not a chemist