Ph Tips

[DoubleZ]

I've got a 45gal and the one thing we consistently have a problem with is the Ph. The water from our tap is around an 8 and even when no water is added to the tank the tank Ph rises to about that. Any tips?

 

[Lecko my Gecko]

what kind of fish are you keeping? some natural ways to lower ph are drift wood and peat.

 

[DoubleZ]

A few black tetras, two plecos, a swordtail, a corry cat, and a few mollies. We do have one piece of driftwood but since the tank is so big we could probably add more. There's not many fish right now because we lost power for 5 days last month.

 

[gm333]

Bringing down PH in a tank is a lot more difficult than raising. Most people use a reverse osmosis unit and mix tap water with the r/o water to get the correct PH. Drift wood can help, but you generally need alot of it to keep ph levels low. Peat does work well, but has a tendency to leech tannins in which can give your tank a yellow tint. My tap water generally runs around 7.8-8.2 and my community fish have no problems with the higher ph. I generally acclimate new fish for a little longer for them to adjust to the higher ph. Unless you are specifically trying to breed your fish the higher ph should not pose a problem.

 

[DoubleZ]

Ok, yah I'm not trying to breed, I'll leave that to my ex-boyfriend/it's complicated. He's obsessive about his tanks.

 

[elnott]

you could just set your tank up for african cichlids. they love high ph and they are very colorful as well. your fish should be fine if you are real concerned about it most pet stores sell ph up and ph down that you can add to your water but it is really not needed unless you wanted to get some discus.

 

[malt_geckos]

Cichlids like lower pH I thought. I know when I bred angels, the best pH for breeding was between 5.9-7.0. You could try to get some reverse osmosis or dionized H2O from a fish store. Some stores will let you bring in big water jugs and pay for their water. If you're really desperate, you can use some bottled water to help reduce the pH. You could also fill up a drum with tap water and let it sit for a few weeks. That will let the chlorine vaporize and drop the pH some. Hope that helps some...

 

[Lecko my Gecko]

Cichlids like lower pH I thought. I know when I bred angels, the best pH for breeding was between 5.9-7.0. You could try to get some reverse osmosis or dionized H2O from a fish store. Some stores will let you bring in big water jugs and pay for their water. If you're really desperate, you can use some bottled water to help reduce the pH. You could also fill up a drum with tap water and let it sit for a few weeks. That will let the chlorine vaporize and drop the pH some. Hope that helps some...

angels, discus and apisto s like lower ph, africans like higher ph. but mallorie is right you can usually get RO water from a pet store, I sell it for 35 cents a gallon at my store

 

[shawn119]

To lower the ph put in driftwood or peatmoss.

 

[elnott]

also you may wanna check what ph level the pet store water is at. fish are very adaptable. if their ph is high you should have no worries. because more than likely the fish have been bred and raised in higher ph levels. when i worked at the pet shop our ph was on the high end about 7.8 as was the water the fish were shipped to us in.